This source for the surname, also found as 'Frye' in the modern idiom is chiefly confined to the south and southwest of England. The second origin is from another nickname, here for a small person from the Middle English 'fry' meaning offspring, a child or small person.The surname is first recorded in the late 12th Century (see below). One, Thomas le Frye is noted in the Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire (1273).lizabeth Fry (1780-1845), was a well known bearer of the name, she became a quaker minister at the age of 29 yrs., and thereafter was tireless in her work as a prison reformer, also inducing the government to regulate the transportation of criminals to Australia.