This interesting name is of Irish origin and embodies some unusual history. It was, in the form, "Mac Oda" adopted by the Norman family of "Archdeacon" which had settled in County Kilkenny in the early 13th Century. The patronymic was first assumed by Odo le Ercedekne and is formed from the Irish element "Mac" meaning "son of" and "Oda" an Irish version of a personal name "Odo" or "Otto" commonly in use among the Normans and Germanic peoples. This personal name goes back either to a Germanic root meaning "riches", or to the Old Norse meaning "point of a weapon". The surnames Archdeacon, Archdekin and Cody, or its variant and rarer spelling Coady were to survive among the principal Irish names in the Barony of Slieveardagh, County Tipperary and in four baronies of County Kilkenny. An early church registration was for the christening of Mary, daughter of Peirce and Mary Coady at St. Michan's Dublin on June 16th 1673. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas Cody married Margarett Hugh, which was dated 2nd July 1655, in the "Cashel", Co. Tipperary, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, known as "The Great Protector", 1653 - 1658. 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.

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