Purdie Surname Meaning & Coat of Arms

Arms linked to Purdy and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

Family name meaning

Behind the Purdie surname stands Purdy, an English name that clerks and families wrote in more than one way. Surname dictionaries give the meaning as “By God”.

Purdie writes “ie” in place of the “y” found in Purdy, a typical scribal difference. Before spelling was standardised, one family could appear under several forms. According to the 2010 US Census, the Purdie surname had 2,117 bearers. That is enough to place it in the top 25,000 American surnames.

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