Footnote

We are grateful to Charlie Haylock who has helped to clarify the current debate on the possible origins of this name:

It may originate from an ancient oath 'by cock and pie' - an allusion to a gastronomical dish once created for banquets of chivalry - peacock pie as illustrated in the current pub sign and included a guilded head at one end and a fanned tail at the other - and marked solemn occasion when knights-errant would pledge themselves to hazardous undertakings or enterprises.

Otherwise and increasingly more likely it could be as a result of the oath “Cock and Pye” that was common in Elizabethan times together with other references in medieval writing where they sometimes used “Cock” as a euphemism for “God” . . . and “Pye” as a very common nickname for the Ordinal.

This second version of the origins is also supported by Prof. A.D. Mills who is an authority on English language from Anglo-Saxon times to present day.