Blamey

Recorded as Blamey, Blamy, as well as possibly Blampey, Blemy, and even Blaney and Blainey, this is an English and Devonion surname. It is locational from some place which may have translated as 'Bleikr's island' from the Norse-Viking personal name 'Bleikr' meaning pale or white and '-eg,' the Olde English word for an island. The Vikings traditionally invaded the North of England and Ireland, but it is known that they also established communities in the South West, and particularly on the various estuaries which pentrate deeply into both Cornwall and Devon. This would suggest that Blamey is or was a lost medieval village of which there are known to be several thousand examples in the British Isles, although few in the West Country. As to why they disappeared has been the subject of many books, but can be summed up as changes in the agricultural environment, growing suburbia, and more natural events such as the various great plagues which wiped out whole communities, and in Devonshire, coastal erosion. Early examples of the surname recording include Jacob Blamey at Stoke Damerel in 1719, and Samuel Blamy christened at Dunchideock in 1753.