Family name origins & meanings
- English : probably a nickname for a showy dresser, from Middle English pe ‘peacock’ (see Peacock) + body ‘body’, ‘person’.
- The prominent financier and philanthropist George Peabody was born 1795 in South Danvers, now Peabody, MA. His first ancestor in America was Francis Peabody, who emigrated from England in 1635 and settled at Topsfield, MA.