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.