“Quercus robur salus patria”
“The strength of the oak is the safety of our country”
The surname Okey is derived from the Old England word ac, which means oak. The surname Okey belongs to the class of topographic surnmaes which were given to people who resided near physical features such as hills, streams, churches or types of trees.
The surname Okey is first found in Somerset, England where Oake is a village and civil parish that dates back to before the Norman Conquest when it was listed as Acon in 897. The place was listed as Acha in the Domesday Book and literally means “place at the oak trees” from the Old English word ac.
A still to be proven connection to John Okey, the regicide, connects our family back to London, England just before the 1600s. It has long been family tradition that he is our ancestor.