Mabe
A Cornish surname from the parish of Mabe, meaning someone who came from that place.
The #5,052 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 44,494 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most likely locational, taken from Mabe, a parish in Cornwall. In older surname books, it is treated simply as a place-name surname: a person identified by having come from that parish. The place-name itself is Cornish, though the surname meaning is straightforwardly “of Mabe.”
History
The name is strongly associated with Cornwall and appears in families connected with landholding in the Mabe area. Historical notes in Cornish surname studies also link related surnames, such as Carveth, to estates within the parish of Mabe. The surname remains uncommon and is found mostly in English-speaking countries today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older Cornish records show that some families in the parish adopted surnames from the specific estate or settlement where they lived, not just from the parish name itself.
From the historical record
“MABBS. See Mabb. MABE. A parish in Cornwall. MABERLEY. MABERLY. Probably the same as Moberley. MABIN. Perhaps from St. Mabyn, a parish in Cornwall, or perhaps the personal name — the same as that borne by the saint to whom the parish was dedicated. MAC-, a well-known prefix of sm'namea”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom