This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the deye' or 'day,' a maid, a dairy-maid, whence 'dairy' (v. Dairy, Skeat's Etymological Dictionary).

'She was as It were a maner dey.'

Chaucer, C T. 14852.

The word is still in use in some of the midland and southern counties, as well as in Scotland. Early entries of the name are common:

Cecilia le Day. Placitorum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi.

Richilda la Deye, Close Roll, 4 Edward.

A feminine suffix is met with in—

Emma le Dcyster, Close Roll, 5 Edward I.

That the male sex in course of time were called 'deys' seems clear. In a Statute, 37 Edward III (1363), we find enumerated 'cow-herds, shepherds, swine-herds, deyes, and all other keepers of live stock' I vachers, berchers, porchers, deyes, et tous autres gardeinz des bestes); v. Way's Promptorium Parvulorum. for an interesting note.

1493. 'William Bayly, my dey': Will of Hadley, in Somerset House (H.E.D).

Willelmus Dey, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Ricardus Dey, 1379: ibid.

Thomas le Dey. 1379: ibid.

Stephen le Dagh. Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi.

Thomas le Day. Writs of Parliament.

There are two columns of Day in the London Directory, but as Day and Daw, and Daycock and Dawcock, are forms from David (which see), these are not all descended from the occupative term.

From the colloquial Gaelic Daidh, 'David.' The Deys ere one of the oldest families in the parish of Mortlach, Banffshire. William Dey in Balvany and others made a raid on the lands of Ardwele in Banff in 1600 (RPC VI p. 135), and Robert Day in Marhaugh is in record in 1727 (Dunblane). Dr. William Dey (d. 1916), a native of Banffshire, was a distinguished student of Aberdeen University, and Agnes Chrystall Dey (1861—1895) was an Aberdeen poetess.

(Anglo-Scand.) Dairy-Servant [Middle English dey(e, day(e, Old English dæge and Old Norse deigja] Thomas le Dey.—Parl. Writs.

Seynd [broiled] bacoun and somtyme an ey [egg] or tweye, For she was, as it were, a maner deye.—Chaucer, Cant. Tales, B 4035-6.

(Anglo-Hebrew), also, like Daw, a diminutive of David, q.v.

This English name is sometimes used as a synonym of O’Dea, q.v

(English, Welsh) The dairy worker; kneader of bread; female servant, but the term was used later of men; descendant of Dai, a pet form of Dafydd (beloved).

1. See David. 2. A tradition states that a follower of the Conqueror settled at Eye in Suffolk, and assumed therefrom the name of D'Eye or Deye.

The Celtic and Gaelic word deag or dagh signifies good, excellent, the same as Da, in Welsh. Camden supposes the name to be a contraction of David. Dai, Du, in the Welsh, signifies dark, in allusion to the complexion or color of the hair. Dim, in Gaelic, the same, dark color, black. Deah, Anglo—Saxon, dark, obscure.

From St. John de Day, near St. Lo, in the Cotentin. Henry and Ralph de Dai, 1165, held a fief from De Lacy in York (Liber Niger). Hugh, Richard, and William Day occur in England, c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

From the Old Norse, Dagr; from the Swedish, Daug; from the German, Dege; from the Flemish, Day, Daye; a personal name.

Day: from Douay.

Day. —Excepting a few representatives in Lincolnshire, this name is confined to the southern part of England, south of a line drawn west from the Wash. It is crowded together in the eastern counties, especially in the contiguous counties of Beds, Cambridge, and Hunts. It is also numerous in Kent, Berks, and particularly in Somerset. Camden regards it as a derivative of David. More probably, however, as Bardsley points out, it is the "dey" or "deye," or "daye," the dairyman in the reign of Edward III. and in Chaucer's time. (Hence also Dayman.) The prevalence of the name in the agricultural counties above enumerated supports Bardsley's view.