Shade
An English surname with uncertain roots, probably connected either to a place name meaning “shaded spot” or to the old personal name Chad/Ceadda.
The #4,919 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,193 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one plausible explanation in older reference works. One line of interpretation treats it as locational, from an Old English word for shade or shelter, referring to a place shaded by trees. Another links it to the older personal name Chad or Ceadda, with some writers comparing related German forms; nineteenth-century sources also note that the connection is not certain.
History
Older surname dictionaries often grouped Shade with Shaddock and Shattock, treating them as related or diminutive forms. The name is uncommon today, but it has been recorded in English surname scholarship chiefly as a variant or shortened form rather than as a major independent surname family. Because the etymology is disputed, the historical record should be read cautiously.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century authors thought Shade might be connected to the same old name as Chad, while others preferred a word for a shaded or sheltered place.
From the historical record
“SHADDOCK. See SHADE. SHADE. (There is a German Schade.) The same as Chad or Ceadda ; whence probably, as diminutives, Shaddock and Shat- tock. Hath, had, chad signifies war. SHAKSPEARE. Variously Shakespeare, Shakespear, Shake- spere, Shakespeyre, Shakyspere, Schakespeire, Schakspere, Shaxper, and Chacksper. "…”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames