Pelkey
A surname most likely from an old French personal name or nickname, later Anglicized in North America.
The #7,279 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,426 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pelkey is usually treated as an Anglicized North American surname of French origin. It may come from a French personal name or from a nickname built on a word related to hair or skin, though the exact source is not certain. In many cases, surnames of this shape were reshaped in spelling and pronunciation after families moved into English-speaking areas.
History
The name is found especially in French-Canadian and northeastern North American family lines, where French surnames were often adapted to English spelling. Because Pelkey is relatively uncommon and not securely tied to one single medieval form, its history is best understood as a localized family-name development rather than a widely standardized surname. Public records in the United States and Canada show several spellings, reflecting that Anglicization process.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Many surnames in this family of names changed spelling as clerks wrote them phonetically in English-speaking records, so different branches may not share exactly the same written form.