English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France, so called from the Gallo-Roman personal name Persius + the locative suffix -acum. The suggestion has also been made that it is a nickname from Old French perce(r) ‘to pierce or breach’ + haie ‘hedge’, ‘enclosure’, referring either to a soldier remembered for his breach of a fortification, or in jest to a poacher who was in the habit of breaking into a private park.
FOREBEARS Percy is the name of a leading Northumbrian family, who were instrumental in holding the English border against the Scots from their stronghold at Alnwick. Their founder was a Norman, William de Percy (?1030–96), 1st Baron Percy, who accompanied William the Conqueror. Sir Henry Percy (1342–1408), 1st Earl of Northumberland, and his son Sir Henry Percy (1364–1403), known as Harry Hotspur, helped place Henry IV on the throne. The earldom, created in 1377, has continued, on two occasions through female members, in the same family to the present day. George Percy (1508–1632), son of the 8th Earl of Northumberland, was in VA from 1606 to 1612, serving briefly as governor.
