Joyce Family History

English: principally from the Middle English and Old French personal name Joce Josse Joice a Romance form of Old Breton Iuthoc a pet form of a name in Iuth- ‘lord’ with the hypocoristic suffix -oc. Joce became popular as a personal name especially in medieval Picardy, Artois, Normandy, and Flanders through the cult of Saint Josse. According to legend, he was the brother or son of the 7th-century Breton king Judhael (see Jewell) and gave up his inheritance to become a hermit in the place recorded in the 8th century as Sanctus Jodocus, now Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, near Étaples in Pas-de-Calais.

The cult was promoted in the second half of the 8th century by the Frankish king Charlemagne and was brought to England (Winchester) in the early 10th century by refugees from Saint-Josse, the centre of the cult, but use of the personal name in England is not known until after the Norman Conquest. Middle English Joce also was sometimes used as a female name (as Joyce is in modern times) and this may have also given rise to a surname.

English: sometimes a variant of Goss from the ancient Germanic personal name Gozzo Gauz which often became Joce Joice Joss(e) in Old French. It was frequently used as a short form of Goscelin or Joscelin (see Joslin).

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Jort in Calvados, France. It is not certain that this surname has survived into the modern period. Irish: of Norman origin from Joce or Joice (see 1 above) Gaelicized as Seóigh or Seóigheach in Ireland where it has been established since the 12th century.

The distribution of this name is concentrated in counties Galway and Mayo and gave rise to the eponymous district of Joyce Country (Dúiche Sheoigheach), located along the border between those two counties. Joy is another Anglicized form of this name, usually confined to County Kerry, Ireland. English (of French Huguenot origin): from French Josse, identical in origin with 1 above.