Do you know where the surname Kidde comes from...?

Question:

Do you know where the surname Kidde comes from...?

and what it means?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It's linked to multiple European countries, and it doesn't mean the same thing in all of the countries where it's used. It clearly developed independently in the different countries.

Immigrants to the US named Kidde were citizens of all of the following countries:
Denmark
France
Italy
Austria
Switzerland
Germany
Netherlands
Bermuda
Scotland
England

You can only know what YOUR surname means if you can go back to the immigrant ancestor in your tree and figure out where s/he came from before immigrating. Denmark and Scotland don't have much in common linguistically, so if someone gives you the Scottish meaning for the name and it turns out your ancestor were Danish, you haven't gotten far in your search. It isn't that hard to interview your family and find out when the name came to the US and to track down the details of that person. Once you do, we'll be happy to snoop through immigration records and get a truly good answer for you. Germany/Britain. You might find this interesting.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kythe...
. This should help.Surname: Kidde
This interesting name has three possible origins, the first of which is from a medieval nickname for a lively, frisky person, or an occupational surname for a goatherd, derived from the Middle English "kid(e)", a young goat. The second possible origin is from the Middle English word "kidde" meaning a ****** of wood, and forms another occupational surname for a seller of kindling, faggots. The third source is Scottish, and is from the personal name "Kid", a variant of "kit", itself a diminutive or pet form of the name "Christopher". There are a number of variants of the modern surname Kidd, Kid(de), Kyd(de) and Kidman. One Roger Kidd was an early emigrant to the New World, arriving in "James Cittye" in Virginia in the "George" in 1623. William Kidd of Boston, Massachusetts, was given the command of a privateer to suppress piracy in 1696, but undertook piracy himself and was sent to England under arrest in 1700 and hanged in 1701. One John Kidd (1775 - 1851) was educated at Oxford in 1793, and became the first Aldrichian professor of Chemistery. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Kide, which was dated 1181, in the "Pipe Rolls of Suffolk", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
A fourth, most likely origin, is from family baptism by a famous monk-priest, Cedd (elder brother of Ceadd - St Chad) c.650 AD, at the conversion of the English People to Christianity (ref. Venerable Bede). The surname has probably evolved from Cedd(pre-664)to Chide (pre-1086)to Kide and finally Kidd, with many post-Norman conquest variants, especially in regions of strong dialect eg Scottish Borders; Kid(d), Kyd(de), Keid(d), Kied, Kaid, Ked(de), Keed(e), Kead(e). Placenames have also evolved along parallel lines eg Chideminstre to Kidderminster, Chidintone to Kiddington, Chidal to Kiddal. The likely homeland of Cedd (and royal Anglo-Saxon cousins, Oswald and Oswiu) was an area in Northumberland called Kideland(1277), now Kidland Forest, though his training was on Lindisfarne under St Aidan. The origin of Border Kidd/Kedd(y) families was likely the Kedslie valley, a tributary of Leader Water, Berwickshire - having originally been established as a Roman Marching Camp, it was well within the Northumbrian catchment area for Christian baptisms by those early missionary priests. Other early records of the Kidd surname are Gilchrist Kide, who owned land on the River Nethan, Clydesdale (1180; ref."Surnames of Scotland" George F. Black), Roger Kide (1222) mentioned in Clifton market, Derbyshire, Thomas Kide/Kyde and Hulle Kide(1278) mentioned in buildings documents for Vale Abbey, Cheshire, and Richard Kide (1358), Lambeth, in a Will of Otto De Grandison.