Loody

Recorded as Loddy, Lody, Loody, Lodee, Loadey, Lodo, and possibly others, this is an English surname. Its origins are to say the least, obscure, but it has been quite well recorded in the surviving church registers of Greater London since at least early Stuart times. The first recording from this source is probably that of Johan Loadey who married John Bigge at St Peters church, Paul's Wharf, on September 27th 1618. We feel that the name is one of the diminutives from the ancient personal name Ludo or Ludovic, although it is also possible that it could have been locational. If so is may have been from a now lost medieval hamlet called 'Lod-eg' or similar, and meaning 'The island on the Lod' as in the River Lodna. This is recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, but is now rather amazingly called The Chet, in the county of Norfolk. Other examples of recordings include Mary Lodie, who was christened at the same church, on July 22nd 1642, and Thomas Loddy, a christening winess at St Olaves church, Old Jewry, on July 20th 1788.