[Facts] Spicey
The name SPICEY appears as a female name in several old wills I have seen.
I have also seen it used for the name of a mare.
Does anyone know of the etymology and/or history of this first name?
Are there any other uses for this name other than the above?
Are there any locations (cities, towns, etc.) named Spicey?
John
I have also seen it used for the name of a mare.
Does anyone know of the etymology and/or history of this first name?
Are there any other uses for this name other than the above?
Are there any locations (cities, towns, etc.) named Spicey?
John
Replies
She's one spicey chica.
Oddly, I have seen two similar names in old census records. Icie and Jicey. Spelling varies a bit. These show up in the southern US. In the case of Jicey, I have come to suspect her name was actually Joyce and she was perhaps called "Joycey. Jicey, I think might just have been how they pronounced it. And spelling being what it was back then, it was written down as pronounced. I'm still unsure about Icie, but I wonder if there is a similar evolution of that name. I've not heard of Spicey.
My second great grandmother, SPICEY Ellis Dew was born in about 1841 in NC. I thought it was just an oddity until I purchased a genealogy book with records from the 1860 census of Wilson County, NC. There are 16 women named "Spicy/Spicey" listed with birth dates ranging from 1811 to 1873. About half are white and half are African American. While it wasn't a popular name by any means, I was still surprised to find others who shared this name from different families. I have no idea how Spicey came to be used as a name. Thanks for any insights.
It's more widespread than that, there are records in Texas (1854), and as far back as 1799 at least. One source asserts that it's a slave name, taking "Spicey" from a nickname given by the owner, but your genealogy book would seem to refute that. It's now rare, but there are a few women named Spicey still, although it's perhaps more popular with authors than parents.