Goodeve Family History

from the Middle English female personal name Godyeve Godive Godif (Old English Godgifu ‘god God’ + ‘gift’ latinized as Godiva). It became confused with another Middle English female personal name Godith (Old English Godgȳð); see Goodey and compare Godyf widow of John Clare alias Goditha Clare de Strode in Assize Rolls (Kent).occasionally perhaps from Middle English godwif ‘virtuous woman; mistress of a household’ often used as a courtesy title for married women of relatively humble social status. Compare Hussey (3) (from hus(e)wif) and Goodman . For obvious reasons it was mainly borne by women such as Nota Godwyf 1311 in Colchester Court Rolls and Margaret Godewyf 1374 in Feet of Fines (Hunts). The bearing of the name by a man such as John Godewyf 1413 in Patent Rolls (Glatton Hunts) can be explained either as an ironic nickname or perhaps through being surnamed from the mother's title. Alternatively because goodwife was generally reduced to goody(f) the relationship name in (i) may have re-etymologized as ‘goodwife’ and Godewyf and Goodwife as hereditary surnames are hypercorrections of Goodiff and Goodeve.

Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016