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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Scottish and northern Irish : of uncertain origin. It may be a much altered form of McAdam. Compare Keddie. If this is correct, the initial G- represents a trace of Gaelic mac ‘son (of)’, while Eddie is variant of Addie, a pet form of Adam. It could alternatively be a nickname meaning ‘greedy’, from a diminutive of the Scottish dialect word gedd ‘pike’, also attested in metaphorical application to a person who was a voracious eater.

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