This may be explained by the Norse affinity to sea exploration, or the fact that the first Storys settled near the Lake District, and so the name might refer to the habitation which they chose.
The earliest Norse settlement of which the first Storys would have been a part, took place in the 9th century north of Carlisle near the Solway Firth.
[2] One of the earliest mentions of the name is “Styr (Saxon for Stor) who gave the manor of Durham with other places to the Abbot of Lindisfarne in the year 999 A.D.” (Symeonis Dunelmensis, vol I, pp. 150–154.)
The forenames Stori and Estori (without surname) are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 (Derbyshire), a survey of England conducted for William the Conqueror.
Other spellings of the name are Stori (William, 1281), with Storre and Staury, the 1379 Poll Tax Returns Records of Yorkshire.
A bloody feud between the Stor(e)ys and Grahams in the 16th century, forced many family members to migrate eastward from the region surrounding the City of Carlisle, to Northumberland in the east.