Story (surname)

The surname Story (and its variant spelling Storey) originates from the Old Norse personal epithet “Stóri”, a derivative of “Storr” which means “large” or “big”. Even though it has been established that the root of the name is “Storr”, R.E.K. Rigbeye, in his book The Storey’s of Old claims that the suffix “ey[e]”, in the variant of Storey, is equivalent to the Icelandic “ig” and signifies “water”. According to him, “Storr” also denotes large in the sense of vast and rough. Rigbeye’s assumption therefore, is that “Storey” means "dweller by large and rough water". This may be explained by the Norse affinity to sea exploration, or the fact that the first Storys settled near the Lake District, and so the name might refer to the habitation which they chose. The earliest Norse settlement of which the first Storys would have been a part, took place in the 9th century north of Carlisle near the Solway Firth. This area then known as Strathclyde, was situated in the northwestern part of England, along the Scottish border. The earliest Storys would have settled on the English side of the border, most likely in the plains along the river Eden. The English or Anglo-Saxon population, among whom the Norse settled, spoke a similar language but pronounced many words in a different way. So, “Storr” among the Norse would have been enunciated as “Styr” in English.