Grundy

This unusual and interesting name is usually English, occasionally Scottish, but always of Norman-French origins. It is chiefly found in the county of Lancashire and other northern counties of England in the forms Grundy, Grundey, Gundrey, Gundry and Goundry. The Old French personal name introduced by the Normans after the invasion of England in 1066 as Gondri and Gundric is the source for the surname. Ultimately it can be argued that if you go far enough back this name is not French at all, but Germanic, being a fused form of the elements 'gund' meaning battle, and 'ric', - power. Pre 7th century Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Old Norse baptismal names were usually distinctive compounds whose elements were often associated with the Gods of Fire, Water and War, and this is a good example. The first recording of the personal name is in its Latinized form of Gundricus of Hertfordshire ithe year 1100. The surname emerges in the late 13th century, and later examples include James Grundy, of Rumworth, in Lancashire, in the Wills Records held in Cheshire in 1579, and John Grundey of Astley, who was recorded in the parish of Leigh in 1587. A coat of arms granted to the family has the blazon of a silver shield charged with five golden martlets on a cross engrailed, between four red lions passant guardant. The motto, "in Deo Solo Salus", translates as, The only salvation is in God. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Grundy. This was dated 1296, in the records of the county of Roxburghshire, Scotland, during the reign of John Balliol, 1292 - 1296. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.