Surnames as First Names — English Surnames: P (Part 3)

Pyrah

Here are the last of the “p” English surnames of Old English, Old Norse and Anglo-French origin, which have great first name potential but have so far seen little use:

• Plaistow — from one of the places of the name. Old English: pleg-stōw “place for play or sport.”
• Planter — from Old French plant “a plant”; used of a gardener
• Plash — from Plash, Somerset, or Plaish, Shropshire. Old English: plæsc “muddy pool.”
• Plater — Middle English plate “armor,” used of someone who made armor.
• Playden — from Playden, Sussex. Old English: pleg “play” + denn “woodland pasture.”
• Pledger — Middle English plegere “some-one who stands bail in a law-suit.”
• Plessis — from Pleshey, Essex and Plessey, Northumberland. Old French: plaisseis “enclosure made with interlaced fencing.”
• Plumley — from one of the places of the name. Old English: plūme “plum-tree” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Poe — Old Norse pá and Middle English po “peacock.”
• Polden — from Polden Hill, Somerset. Celtic place-name Bouelt “cow-pasture” + Old English dūn “hill.”
• Polder — from one of the places of the name. Old English *polra “marshy-land.”
• Polton — from one of the places called Poulton. Old English: pōl “pool” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Pomeroy — from La Pommeraye, Calvados. Old French: pommeraie “apple-orchard.”
• Ponter — Middle English pont, through French from Latin pons “bridge.” Used of someone who lived by a bridge.
• Ponton — from one of the Pontons in Lincolnshire. Old English *pamp “hill” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Popham — from Popham, Hampshire. Possibly Old English *pop(p) “pebble” + hām ‘homestead,’ ‘village,’ ‘estate,’ ‘manor or hamm “enclosure.”
• Popley — Old English popel “stony” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Popple — from the lost village of Pophall, Sussex, or Pophills, Warwickshire. Old English *pop(p) “pebble” + hall or hill.
• Porcher — Old French porcher “swine-herd.”
• Porteous — Anglo-French: porte-hors, literally “carry-hours”, a porte-hors was a small, “portable” prayer book. The surname arose as a name for someone who wrote them.
• Portno, Portnoy, Portner — Anglo-French: port-nuit, literally “carry-night.” Perhaps used of a night-watchman, or a night-owl.
• Possell, Postle — Old French apostle “apostle.” As well as arising as a pageant name, there is some evidence Apostle was used as a first name in the Middle Ages.
• Pothecary, Potticary — Middle English: apotecarie, ultimately from Latin apothecarius “store-keeper” (specifically of spices and drugs — only later came to mean some-one who prepared drugs, an apothecary).
• Potter — Old English: potere “a potter.” Intriguingly has never been in the top 1000…
• Potterell — Old French: poutrel “colt.”
• Potton — from Potton, Bedfordshire. Old English pott “pot” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Pougher — Old English: pohha “bag”; used of someone who made bags.
• Poulter — Old French: poultier “poultry-dealer.”
• Powell — appeared once in the ranks in 1891. Sometimes from Paul, sometimes from Old English pōl “pool” — and sometimes from the Welsh ap Howel “son of Howel.”
• Poyle — sometimes from Apulia, Italy; othertimes from Pulley, Shropshire. Old English pōl “pool”  + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Poyner — Old French: poigner “fighter.”
• Poynter — Middle English: poynte “a tagged lace/cord,” used of someone who made them.
• Poynton — from Pointon, Lincolnshire and Poynton, Cheshire.  Pointon is from the personal name *Pohha, Poynton from *Pofa + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Poyntz — from the Old French personal name Ponz, from the Latin Pontius (ultimately from pons “bridge.”).
• Prater — ultimately from Latin praetor, which was used in the Middle Ages to mean “reeve.”
• Prentice — Old French: aprentis “apprentice.”
• Prescott — Old English: prēost “priest” + cot “cottage.” Used of someone who worked at the priest’s cottage.
• Pressney, Prestney — from Prestney’s Farm, Essex. Old English prēost “priest” + haga “enclosure.”
• Prester — Old French: prestre “priest.”
• Proust — Middle English: provost “a provost.”
• Pryer — Old French: priour “a prior.”
• Pryke — Middle English: prike “point (of a weapon)”, also a type of weapon; probably used of someone who made them.
• Prynne — Old French: prin “first,” “superior.”
• Pulham — from one of the places called Pulham. Old English: pōl “pool” + hām ‘homestead,’ ‘village,’ ‘estate,’ ‘manor or hamm “enclosure.”
• Pullan — Old French: poulan “colt.”
• Purcifer — a variant of Percival.
• Purdey — Old French: pour Dieu “for God!” — an “oath” name.
• Purden — Old French: prudhomme “honest man.”
• Purefoy — Anglo-French: par fei  “by faith!” — another “oath” name.
• Purley — From one of the places called Purley or Purleigh. Old English: pūr “snipe” or pirige “pear-tree” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Pyrah — probably a variant of the surname Perry, from pirige “pear-tree.”