PRYCE Family History

This interesting name has two possible origins. The first being a metonymic occupational name for an official, responsible for "price fixing in markets", deriving from the Middle English or the Old French "pris" meaning "price". The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century. An alternative spelling "Prys" appears in the 1320, (Fine Court Rolls of Sussex). The name may also be a patronymic, with a reduced form of the Welsh element "ap" meaning "son of", plus the personal name Rhys, from the Old Welsh "Ris", "fiery warrior".