s, which
is the received one at Magdalene College, and Peppis, which I learn from
Mr. Walter C. Pepys is the one used by other branches of the family. Mr.
Pepys has paid particular attention to this point, and in his valuable
"Genealogy of the Pepys Family" (1887) he has collected seventeen
varieties of spelling of the name, which are as follows, the dates of
the documents in which the form appears being attached:

1. Pepis (1273); 2. Pepy (1439); 3. Pypys (1511); 4. Pipes (1511); 5.
Peppis (1518); 6. Peppes (1519); 7. Pepes (1520); 8. Peppys (1552); 9.
Peaps (1636); 10. Pippis (1639); 11. Peapys (1653); 12. Peps (1655); 13.
Pypes (1656); 14. Peypes (1656); 15. Peeps (1679); 16. Peepes (1683);
17. Peyps (1703). Mr. Walter Pepys adds:--

"The accepted spelling of the name 'Pepys' was adopted generally
about the end of the seventeenth century, though it occurs many
years before that time. There have been numerous ways of
pronouncing the name, as 'Peps,' 'Peeps,' and 'Peppis.' The
Diarist undoubtedly pronounced it 'Peeps,' and the lineal
descendants of his sister Paulina, the family of 'Pepys Cockerell'
pronounce it so to this day. The other branches of the family all
pronounce it as 'Peppis,' and I am led to be satisfied that the
latter pronunciation is correct by the two facts that in the
earliest known writing it is spelt 'Pepis,' and that the French form
of the name is 'Pepy.'"

The most probable explanation is that the name in the seventeenth
century was either pronounced 'Pips' or 'Papes'; for both the forms 'ea'
and 'ey' would represent the latter pronunciation. The general change in
the pronunciation of the spelling 'ea' from 'ai' to 'ee' took place in a
large number of words at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of
the eighteenth-century, and three words at least (yea, break, and great)
keep this old pronunciation still. The present Irish pronunciation
of English is really the same as the English pronunciation of the
seventeenth century, when the most extensive settlement of Englishmen
in Ireland took place, and the Irish always pronounce ea like ai (as,
He gave him a nate bating--neat beating). Again, the 'ey' of Peyps would
rhyme with they and obey. English literature is full of illustrations of
the old pronunciation of ea, as in "Hudibras;"

"Doubtless the pleasure is as great
In being cheated as to cheat,"

which