Standish

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English : habitational name from a place in Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), so named from Old English stān ‘stone’ + edisc ‘pasture’. There is another place so named in Gloucestershire, but it does not seem to be the source of the surname.
• Myles Standish (?1584–1656) was a soldier of fortune, from 1620 captain of the Mayflower Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony. Little is known of his origins and early life, but in his will he claimed to be descended from a leading Catholic family, the Standishes of Standish, Lancashire, England. He also claimed to have been deprived of his inheritance, a claim not confirmed.