Eades
An English surname meaning “son of Ede,” with Ede/Eady ultimately coming from an old personal name related to wealth or prosperity.
The #6,903 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 63,397 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Eades is a patronymic surname built on the medieval personal name Ede or Eady, with the added -s meaning “son of.” The name Ede is generally traced to the Old English element ead, meaning “wealth,” “prosperity,” or “fortune,” which appears in many Anglo-Saxon names. So the basic sense is “descendant of Ede.”
History
The surname is well attested in English records and was noted by 19th-century surname writers as a variant of Ede/Edes. It appears in several counties in historical name distributions, and later evidence shows the form Eades continuing as a regional English surname, especially in parts of eastern and central England. In modern use it survives both in Britain and in countries shaped by English migration, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books often treat Eades and Eade as just modern spellings of the same underlying family name, rather than separate surnames.
From the historical record
“Bads, EAdea.— Bapi. ' the son of Ede'i V. Eddie. Eades and Eade are modem variants of Edes and Ede, q.v. 1670. Bapl.— Rabert, M. Roben Eadci: Si. Jim. aerkenwell, i. mj.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances