Opie Family History

English (Devon and Cornwall): from an unrecorded Middle English personal name Opy or Oppy which is attested in 16th-century Cornwall as a pet form of Middle English Osbert (mainly a Norman name an Old French borrowing of ancient Germanic Oseberht from ōs ‘god’ + berht ‘bright’).

There may have also been a voiced pet form Oby (see Hobby). Loss of -s- in Osbert may explain some examples of Hobart though this name usually had a different origin.

Middle English Osbert is mainly found in southern England, the Midlands, and Essex, and it was especially favoured in West Cornwall where its usual pet form was Hoskin.

In England generally, it was frequently confused with the less common personal name Osbern (see Osborne). Opy was probably a pet form of Osbern as well.