It is generally considered that the name Adey is a pet name for Adam or that it means the son of Adam but English Surnames by Robert Ferguson (published 1858) suggests that the name comes from Ad, the Anglo-Saxon word for a funeral pyre.
Variations include Addison, Adds, Addy, Ade, Ades, Adey, Adie, Ady, Adye, Addey, Aday, Addee and Adkins. The name is almost certainly of Anglo-Saxon descent spreading to Ireland, Scotland and Wales where it can be found in mediaeval manuscripts.
Some sources say that the name originated in Yorkshire, this is probably because one early record which survives is a poll tax record, from 1379, for Matilda Addy in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
In Scotland a William Adison was rector of Luss in 1370 and a Gilbert Filius Ade was a tenant of the Douglases in the Barony of Kylkoucho in 1376.
Hovendens summary of the Visitation of Kent taken in the years 1619-1621 includes a pedigree which begins with John de Greet who was living in Doddington, Kent in 1352. John's grandson Walter de Greet assumed the name of Adye.
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