Is Kilby an Irish surname?

Question:

Is Kilby an Irish surname?

I have been told that my Great Grandparents came from Ireland. The only name I have is Sally Kilby. Can anyone help me?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Tina,

It appears to be English according to several sites

Origin Displayed: English

The name kilby was first used by England's ancient Anglo-Saxon culture. It comes from when the family lived in the region of Kilby located both in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. kilby is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties.

Spelling variations of this family name include: Kilby, Kilbey, Killbey, Kilbee, Kilbie, Kelby and many more.

First found in Northumberland where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Henry Kilby settled in Virginia in 1635; Peter Kilby settled in Virginia in 1634; William Kilbye settled in Boston in 1767; Henry Kilbie settled in Virginia in 1637.

kilby
English: habitational name from a place in Leicestershire, recorded in Domesday Book as Cilebi. It was probably originally named with the Old English elements cild (see Child) + tun ??enclosure??, ??settlement??. Compare Chilton. The second element was then replaced some time after the Danish invasions by the Old Norse form b㽲.

Surname: Kilby
Recorded as Kilby, Kileby, Kilsby, and Killerby, this is an English surname. It is locational from either the village of Kilby in Leicestershire, or the similar named villages of Killerby in the counties of Durham and and North Yorkshire. Kilby is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Cilebi" and later as "Kildeby" in 1219, whilst the various Killerby's all appear in the Domesday book as Culuerbi or Chilurobi showing the inability of Norman clerics to understand and translate correctly the strong local accents of those far off times. The translation of the village names may be that of 'The child's settlement' from the pre 7th century Old English and Norse "Cilda-bi". This does not literally mean a child or children, but was a personal name of endearment given either to a first child, or more likely as land ownership is involved, to the eldest child of a local chief. To this has been added the Scandinavian element of "-bi" meaning a settlement or farm. Amongst the early interesting recordings is that of Henry Kilby, who was an early emigrant to the English colonies of the New World, leaving London on the ship "George" in 1635, bound for Virginia. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Kilebi. This was dated 1202, in the Assize Rolls of Northamptonshire, during the reign of King John of England, 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.