Gandy - Meno

Recorded as Gandy, Gandey, and the very rare Gandee and Gandie, which are probably extinct, this is an English surname. Like the surnames Game, Games and Gammons, the origination is from the pre 7th century word 'gamen', meaning game, and hence was a nickname for a person (-day) who was good at games (gamen). It is not easy to explain how over a period of some fifteen hundred year 'gamen' should become (for instance) Gandy, but during that period the language passed through at least three distinct and complete changes, which effected both spelling and dialect. This is in addition to the French influence following the Norman Conquest of 1066, when for three centuries thereafter, French was the official language of England and most of Scotland. Briefly it may be summarised that the changes were from Gamen which may well have been used as a personal name as well as a nickname, to Gameday, with John Gameday being recorded in Suffolk, apparently the centre of the surname, in the tax rolls of the year 1327. Thereafter it changed again to Gandy or Gandey, with as an example, Katherine Gandy marrying Thomas Munnes at the church of St Nicholas Acons, in the city of London, on May 20th 1562.