Shoebridge Family History

Apparently altered from early Modern English shew-bread ‘the twelve loaves that were placed every Sabbath 'before the Lord' on a table beside the altar of incense and at the end of the week were eaten by the priests alone’ (OED) first recorded in Tyndale's Bible translation (1530).

The earliest name-form may be genuine but a reinterpretation sparked by the contemporary interest in Bible-translation; it may stand as an intermediate form between the modern name and an original unlocated place-name in SE England perhaps Shoebury (Essex).

Compare Thomas Shewbery 1571 in IGI (Woodchurch Kent) or possibly the recurring minor place-name Shovelbrede 'shovel's breadth' as in Shulbrede (Sussex) but both these possible origins offer phonological difficulties.