A male name. the etymology of this name is obscure. There was a m. name Amis (Latin Amisius) corresponding to the f. Amice (Latin Amisia) q.v., and there was also a French Amé (Latin Amatus), the name of a popular saint. The diminutive Amiot which occurs in England in the 12th and 13th C was probably formed from Amé or from the more common f. Amée (see Amy). Amyas or Amias may likewise be derived from Amé, though the formation is irregular. Amias is found as early as 1199 (Curia Regis Rolls) but was never common. Camden (1605) says ‘We do now use Amias for this (i.e. Aimé) in difference from Amie the woman’s name’. Kingsley’s use of it for the hero of Westward Ho! (1855) was doubtless responsible for the modern revival of the name. Amias has sometimes been misread in old records and printed Ananias.

Amias Curia Regis Rolls 1189-1213, Hundred Rolls 1273. Amiot, Amisius Curia Regis Rolls 1179.

AMYAS, like the obsolete Amadeus, means ‘(one) loving God’, a true Christian, and Amias, like the French knight Amadis of Gaul, derives from Amadeus (Fr. Amadée), which seems to have been suggested by St. Amatus or Amé, ‘beloved’. The Amias form has fallen into almost complete, Amyas into considerable disuse: many people, in fact, remember the name only in connexion with Amyas Leigh, the hero of Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho, itself not much read in these days. Cf. Amyot.

Latin (masculine) - Beloved.