Beedie

Recorded as Bedie, Beddie, Beddie, Beddy, Beedie, Bidie, Biddie, Biddy, and probably others, this is almost certainly a surname of Scottish origins. According to the Dictionary of Scottish Surnames compiled by the late Professor Black of the New York Public Library, it is believed to be a dialectal transposition of the medieval female name Beatrice, and as a surname is generally recorded as Beattie, Beatty and Beaty. The spellings where 'd' or 'dd' have replaced 't' or 'tt' originated in Eastern Scotland and particularly Perthshire, in the late medieval period. Given that over the centuries spelling has been at best indifferent and local accents very thick, it is hardly surprising that the vast majority of surnames have developed variant spellings, some now much more popular than the original form, where that survives at all. In this case the first known recording is believed to be that of Gilbert Beatrice of Roxburgh in 1283, and in the later forms that of Nicoll Beddy in the registers of Balquharne parish in Perthshire in 1580. Other recordings taken at random include in 1616 that of David Bedie of Toux in the parish of Fetteresso, Thomas Beedie of Edinburgh in 1683, and Surgeon-General George Biddie (1832 - 1914) of Deskford, Aberdeenshire.