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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : nickname for a fortunate person, from Middle English sped ‘success’, ‘good fortune’, ‘smooth progress’ (hence the modern meaning ‘swiftness’).
  • English : from the derived sense of Middle English sped mentioned above, hence a nickname for a swift runner.
  • Irish : Anglicization (part translation) of Gaelic Ó Fuada, from fuad ‘haste’ (see Foody).
  • Translation of German and Ashkenazic Jewish Schnell.

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