“Once upon a time there lived an orphaned boy named _______who knew only his first name. He liked music so he came to be called ____Musick.” Ugh.

The story never made sense to me. The Musick name goes back many generations. I can imagine our ancestors sitting around a fire, with one of our “uncles” making up the waif story after telling a bunch of ghost stories until well into the night. The next day, he’d probably take you on a snipe hunt because the kids were so gullible.

Anyway, not a likely story.

I assure you, the Musick name goes back centuries. The name Musick was first found in Brittany, where the Musicks have held a family seat since ancient times.

From House of Names: Ancient Brittany, originally known as Armorica, was inhabited by the Celtic Tribes of Veneti, Curiovolitae, and the Asismii in the 3rd century B.C. The name Musick is believed to have originated in this area of France. In the 4th century the Roman General Maximus,
preparing to leave England to return to Rome, induced (forced) 6,000 Britons under their leader
Prince Conan, son of the King of Wales and Albany, to occupy Brittany, then known as Armorica. The Brits settled in that part of France.

Genetically, the people of this region of France have genes similar to those found in Wales. You may see this on the map if you have done Ancestry DNA.

Throughout the course of history, most surnames have undergone change for many reasons. A son may not even choose to spell his name the same way that his father did. Many are simple spelling changes by a person who gave his version, phonetically, to a scribe, a priest, or a recorder. Many names held prefixes or suffixes which almost became optional as they passed through the centuries, or were adopted by different branches to signify either a political or religious adherence. ~House of Names

The House of Names lists many variations of the name, Musick some of which are: Music, Musice,
Musy, Musie, Musies, Mussy, Mussie, Mussies, Mussey, Mousy, Mousie, Musset, Musy,
Musse, de la Musse, LaMusse, DeMusse, Mussi, Musi, Mousies, Moussy, Moussie,
Moussies, Mucy, Mucey, Mucie, Mucies, Moucie, Moucies, Moucey, de Musy and du
Musy but all are included in the basic origin of the surname.