Prideaux Family History

Cornish: habitational name from a place in the parish of Luxulyan, which is first recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries in the form Pridias, perhaps from Cornish pr¯ ‘clay’ + an unknown word. Later forms of the place name, and hence the surname, show the results of folk etymological assimilation to French près d’eaux ‘beside waters’ or pré d’eaux ‘meadow of waters’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press