Amyas

English

Etymology

From Old French Amis, a given name and nickname, from Latin amīcus (“friend”). Later interpreted as a masculine form of Amy.

Proper noun

Amyas

1. A male given name.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: IV:viii:59:

     The morrow next about the wanted howre, / The Dwarfe cald at the doore of Amyas, / To come forthwith unto his Ladies bowre.

   • 1855 Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Macmillan and Co. (1871), page 17:

     Because there was fellow-feeling of old in merry England, in county and in town; and these are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of Burrough, John Staveley, Michael Heard, and Jonas Marshall of Bideford, and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and they, the first of all English mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis Drake, and are come hither to give God thanks.

   • 1942 Agatha Christie, Five Little Pigs, HarperCollins (1994), ISBN 0006163726, page 39:

     She was an admirer of Kingsley. That's why she called her son Amyas. His father scoffed at the name - but he gave in.

Usage notes

• Rare outside fiction today.