Fox (surname)

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For people surnamed Lane Fox, see Lane Fox.
Fox
Family name
Meaning A name taken from the cunning animal, "Mac a'tSionnaigh" (son of the Fox)
Region of origin England and Ireland
Related names Lane Fox
Footnotes: Frequency Comparison: [1]

Fox or Foxe or Foxx is a surname originating in England and Ireland. The derivation is from the Middle English "fox", itself coming from the Old English pre 7th century "fox". The surname first appears on record in the latter part of the 13th century, with the first recorded spelling in 1273 to be that of John Fox in the "Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire", England.[2] In Ireland, Fox is mainly an Anglicised form of the Old Gaelic "Mac a'tSionnaigh" (son of the Fox).[2]

Some families with this name[edit]

  • Fox family of Falmouth (19th century), an influential family in that Cornwall, UK, town
  • Fox sisters (19th century), American sisters credited as the creators of Spiritualism
  • Robin Fox family of English actors, including Edward, James, Emilia, Laurence and Lydia Fox

Notable persons with this surname[edit]

Actors[edit]

Arts (other)[edit]

Military[edit]

  • Charley Fox (1920–2008), Royal Canadian Air Force officer in World War II
  • Gustavus Fox (1821–1883), American naval officer in the Civil War
  • Josiah Fox (1763–1847), Cornish-American naval architect
  • Myles C. Fox (1918–1942), United States Marine Corps officer and Navy Cross recipient
  • Wesley L. Fox (born 1931), American US Marine, awarded the Medal of Honor

Politics and peerage[edit]

Religion[edit]

  • Edward Fox (bishop) (1496–1538), English churchman, Bishop of Hereford
  • Emmet Fox (1886–1951), Irish spiritual leader of the early 20th Century
  • William Johnson Fox (1786–1864), English religious and political orator
  • George Fox (1624–1691), English Dissenter and the founder of the Religious Society of Friends
  • Joseph John Fox (1855–1915), American Roman Catholic bishop
  • Matthew Fox (priest) (born 1940), American priest and theologian
  • Richard Foxe (Prince Bishop, 1448–1528), English churchman, founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
  • Tom Fox (Quaker) (1951–2006), Quaker peacemaker executed by insurgents in Iraq

Science and technology[edit]

Sports[edit]

Other[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Fox Surname Meaning and Distribution". forebears.co.uk.  Retrieved 21 January 2014
  2. ^ a b Surnamedb/Fox