Moody surname meaning

Moody is an English or Irish nickname surname whose older word had a much wider range than the modern sense of feeling sad. Middle English mody or modie could describe someone bold, proud, impetuous, fierce, or quick to anger. The label may therefore have been admiring, critical, or simply descriptive depending on context. Mody and Moodie are historical or regional forms. Nickname is the catalog type with likely confidence: the adjective is well established, but no surviving record can tell us which shade of temperament prompted any one family’s surname.