This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the popinjay,' the talking jay, i.e. parrot; the sobriquet of a chatterer. Middle English popingay, Old French papegay. The K is excrescent, as in Pottinger, Messenger, Clavinger. Mr. Lower has found Popjay and Popjoy still existing. The curious corruption Pobgee, however, is in the London Directory. The change from 'p' to 'b' seems to have occurred at the close of the 18th century.

1502. 'Item, for bringing of a popyngay to the Quene to Windesore, 13s. 4d.': Privy Purse Exp., Elizabeth of York.

Robert Papynjaye, Close Rolls, 45 Edward III.

Richard Popingay. Calendar of State Papers.Stolen from Fore bears

Of the Popinjay Inn at Norwich, Blomefield writes:

'The middle messuage belonged to the prior and convent, and the other two messuages in 1330 to Roger Papinjay, in whose family it continued till Roger Papinjay, his grandson, turned the corner house into an inn, and in allusion to his own name made it the sign of the popinjay, or great green parrot, from which time it hath been a publick-house to this day, it now being the Popinjay Tavern.': History of Norfolk.

'Richard Popynjay, surveyor of the works at Portsmouth,' July 8, 1568: Rec. Office, Cal. State Papers (Domestic).

1759. Married — William Popjoy and Mary Maynard: St. George, Hanover Square.

1770. — John Francis Popejoy and Mary Freeman: ibid.

1784. — James Pobjoy and Margaret Harris: ibid.

From this latter the transition to the Pobgee of the London Directory is easy.

POPJAY: An A-Norman and Chaucerian word for parrot, is popinjay, or popin. gaye. Medieval archers used to practice with the bow at an artificial parrot or popinjay; and shooting at the popinjay was a favourite holiday pastime. In Scotland the game itself was called papejay or papinjay. See Strutt's Sports. This was probably a complimentary sobriquet applied to a good marksman with the long bow or the cross-bow.