BalfagerGothic, Medieval Portuguese Name of a Visigoth noble family (around the 10th century) from the Iberian Peninsula (current northern Portugal), meaning "bold spear"; they descent from the Balti dynasty.
BalingitFilipino, Tagalog From the name of Rajah Balingit (or Pedro Balingit), a 16th-century Filipino chief.
BalkwillAnglo-Saxon (Archaic) From the Old English pre 7th Century balca, "beam", with wiell(a), "spring, stream", and probably refers to a primitive footbridge made by a tree trunk across the stream. The name may also be topographical for a dweller by the footbridge.
BankheadScottish, Northern Irish Topographic name for someone who lived at the top or end of a bank or hill, derived from Middle English bank meaning "bank" and hed meaning "head". There are several minor places in Scotland so called, but the most likely source of the surname is one on the border between the parishes of Kilmarnock and Dreghorn in Ayrshire, Scotland.
BankstonEnglish Derived from the old English world "Banke" usually given to a family who lived near a hill or a slope.
BanuelosSpanish Spanish (Bañuelos): habitational name from any of various places, primarily Bañuelos de Bureba in Burgos, named for their public baths, from a diminutive of baños ‘baths’ (see Banos)
BárcenasSpanish This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the Castilian municipality of Espinosa de los Monteros.
BarchardEnglish The name is derived from when the family resided in Cheshire, where they held a family seat near Birkenhead at the estuary of the River Birket. It is from the name of the river that their name is derived.
BarcroftEnglish English habitational name from for example Barcroft in Haworth, West Yorkshire, so named with Old English bere (barley) and croft (smallholding).
BardwellDutch Originates from the word "Bard" meaning beard, and "Well" meaning water sorce.
BarefootEnglish English: nickname for someone who was in the habit of going about his business unshod, from Old English bær ‘bare’, ‘naked’ + fot ‘foot’. It may have referred to a peasant unable to afford even the simplest type of footwear, or to someone who went barefoot as a religious penance.In some instances, probably a translation of German Barfuss, the northern form Barfoth, or the Danish cognate Barfo(e)d.
BarreiraPortuguese, Galician From several habitations in Galicia and Portugal, from barreira meaning "clay or loam hollow".
BarreiroGalician, Portuguese Barreiro is a habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia (Spain) and Portugal named with a derivative of barro 'clay loam'.
BascianiItalian The surname Basciani derives from a nickname probably given to the family of origin (from the Latin "Bassus"), for the probable short stature of some components, although the derivation from the Campania family "Bassus" is not excluded.
BascöurtFrench The Bascourt or Bascur surname is from France, from that place dates the beginning of the surname, however the French of previous centuries had no records of that surname. ... [more]
BassfordEnglish Habitational name from any of several places called Basford, especially the one in Nottinghamshire. There are others in Staffordshire and Cheshire. Either that or it's from Old English berc "birch tree" + Old English ford "ford".
BatailleFrench nickname for a bellicose man from bataille "battle" (from Latin battualia) or a habitational name from (La) Bataille the name of several places in France all named as the site of a battle in former times.
BathgateScottish, English From the town of Bathgate, west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The town's name derives from Cumbric *beith, meaning 'boar' (Welsh baedd) and *gaith. meaning 'wood' (Welsh coed).
BatlokwaTswana, Southern African a branch of the Bakgatla section of the Bantu speaking communities which originated from the Great Lakes and Northern Central Africa. Batlokwa are said to have been a breakaway branch of the Bakgatla which is another Bahurutse section of the Tswana people.
BaumfreeDutch, American, African American This name is clearly derived from Sojourner Truth, a former African-American slave who was born as Isabella Bomefree (but at some point the surname was changed to the more German-looking Baumfree). Although Sojourner's original owners - James and Elizabeth Bomefree/Baumfree - were apparently of Dutch descent, it is questionable whether the surname is really of Dutch origin... [more]
BaygentsAnglo-Saxon The earliest recorded spelling of the surname was "Besant", "Bezant", or "Beasant", which comes from an old French word "besant", which, in turn, was derived from the Latin term "byzantius aureus". The "byzantius" or "bezant" was a gold coin named after the city of Byzantium (ancient name in BC, later named 'Constantinople' in 330 AD)... [more]
BayındırTurkish Means "prosperous, rich, developed" in Turkish.
BaykalovRussian Derived from the name of Lake Baikal, derived from Turkish baiköl meaning "rich lake".
BeaufordEnglish Variation of Buford. It is derived from the French word "beau", meaning "beautiful", and "ford", an Old English word meaning "river crossing".
BeauvaisFrench From French place names derived from "beautiful sight".
BeauvoirEnglish From the surname of Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), a French feminist and philosopher.
BeccariaItalian From beccaro "butcher", ultimately from becco "goat".
BechmannGerman (Rare) Surname denoting someone who worked with pitch, from Middle High German bech / pech "pitch" and man, a suffix which can mean "man" or simply be used as a name suffix.
BeckwithEnglish (African) Habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire named Beckwith, from Old English bece "beech" + Old Norse viðr "wood" (replacing the cognate Old English wudu).
BedworthEnglish An English habitational surname from a place so named near Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, derived most likely from the Old English personal name Baeda (see Bede), suffixed with worþ, 'enclosure', denoting an enclosed area of land belonging to Baeda.
BelfioreItalian Means "beautiful (as a) flower", derived from Italian bel "beautiful" combined with Italian fiore "flower". Two Italian sources claim that this surname was derived from the medieval masculine given name Belfiore (which has of course the same meaning), but I can find no evidence that this was an actual given name in medieval Italy... [more]
BelgraveEnglish Aristocratic surname from French, meaning "beautiful grove"; comes from a place name in Leicestershire. A famous namesake is British polar explorer Belgrave Ninnis, who perished in Antarctica on a 1912 expedition.
BelinskyRussian, Jewish Habitational surname for someone from Belin (Bilyn) in Ukraine, which may be derived from Proto-Slavic *bělъ "white".
BéliveauFrench (Rare), French (Quebec) Derived from Old French besliver meaning "to stagger along", originally a nickname referring to a drunkard. It could also denote a person who lived in a beautiful, lovely valley, derived from French beau "beautiful" or Old French beu, bel "fair, lovely", combined with val meaning "valley"... [more]
BelmondoItalian Name of Italian origin meaning "beautiful world". Famous bearers of the name are the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-) and the Italian cross-country skier, twice Olympic champion and four times World champion Stefania Belmondo (1969-).
BenedictEnglish Of Latin origin. Due to an early association as a saint's name and a papal name, often said to mean "blessed." Originally the Latin elements are 'bene-' meaning "good" or as an adverb "well" plus '-dict,' meaning "spoken." Thus, the literal meaning is "well spoken." ... [more]
BenfieldEnglish habitational name from one or more of the numerous places in England called Benfield or Binfield which are named from Middle English bent "bent-grass" and feld "open country" or "land converted to arable use" (Old English beonet and feld).
BennounaArabic (Maghrebi) Most likely from Arabic بن (bin) meaning "son" and the given name Nouna, which may have been derived from an Arabic word meaning "whale, big fish" or "sabre, sword". Alternately, it may be from an Arabic name for a variety of melon... [more]
BergaminItalian Traced to 1437, Bergamo. A 'bergamini' was known as a person famrmed and sold milk cows
BergdahlSwedish Combination of Swedish berg "mountain, hill" and dal "valley".
BergdorfGerman Origin unidentified. Possibly a German habitational name from places in Hamburg and Lower Saxony called Bergedorf, Bargdorf in Lower Saxony, or Bergsdorf in Brandenburg.
BergeronFrench Diminutive of French berger meaning "shepherd".
BergholdGerman Surname that denoted the owner of a vineyard.
BergkampDutch, German From the name of various places in the Netherlands and Germany, derived from Old Dutch and Old High German berg meaning "mountain" and kamp meaning "field". This name is borne by Dutch former soccer player Dennis Bergkamp (1969-).
BerglindSwedish Combination of Swedish berg "mountain, hill" and lind "linden tree".
BerglingSwedish Combination of Swedish berg "mountain" and the common surname suffix -ing "belonging to, coming from". It has also been found as a spelling variant of similarly spelled names, such as Berlin... [more]
BergmarkSwedish Combination of Swedish berg "mountain, hill" and mark "land, ground, field".
BerkeleyEnglish From any of the locations called Berkeley derived the elements beorc "birch" and leah "clearing, wood" meaning "birch clearing"... [more]
BerlangaSpanish From the village or castle named "Berlanga de Duero" from Soria, Spain. Berlanga itself was derived from "berlain" which comes from the name of a precious stone derived from the Greek. So it could be related to stones.
BernabéuCatalan (Valencian) From the given name Bernabé. A famous bearer was Santiago Bernabéu (1895-1978), a Spanish soccer player and the eleventh president of the soccer club Real Madrid CF.
BernthalJewish Ornamental name derived from the Yiddish given name Ber meaning "bear" and German thal meaning "valley". A famous bearer is American actor Jon Bernthal (1976-).
BerongoyFilipino, Cebuano From Cebuano barungoy meaning "black-finned flying fish" (genus Cypselurus).
BerrettaItalian From berretta, originally meaning ‘hooded cloak’ (Latin birrus), later ‘headdress’, ‘bonnet’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of such headgear or a nickname for an habitual wearer.
BerryannMedieval English (Rare) The name is pre 7th century Olde English and later Olde French. It derives from the word burri or berri, translating as a fortress or castle and means 'one who dwelt at the castle'. The suffix 'man' also indicates that it was job descriptive for a guard or keeper of the castle... [more]
BertagniItalian Bertagni has a lineage in Genoa and one in Lucca. Possibly derives from Gothic, Lombard and Germanic names containing the root germanica bertha (bright) or the celtic bert (bearer).
BeshimovKyrgyz Possibly derived from the given name Beshim. A known bearer is Bakyt Beshimov, the deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.
BestautyOssetian Derived from Ossetian бистэ (biste) meaning "village, suburb" or from Persian به (beh) meaning "good, excellent, better". In the case of the former, it would have been used to indicate the place of residence of an ancestor.
BetanzosGalician This indicates familial origin within the eponymous municipality.
BetjemanDutch One of the earliest surnames, it derives from the Roman personal name "Benedictus", meaning blessed.
BetschlaRomansh (Archaic) Derived from the Germanic name element beraht "bright". The name was replaced by the Italianized form Bezzola in the 18th century.
BhandariIndian, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Nepali Derived from Sanskrit भाण्डागारिक (bhandagarika) meaning "storekeeper, treasurer", ultimately from भाण्डागार (bhandagara) meaning "storeroom, storehouse, treasury".
BhardwajIndian From Sanskrit bhāradvāja ‘descendant of bharadvāja’, bharadvāja meaning ‘one who has strength or vigor’ (a compound of bharat ‘bearing’ + vāja ‘vigor’). According to legend, Bharadvaja (bharadvāja) was the name of one of the great sages.
BhargavaIndian From Sanskrit bhārgava ‘(descendant) of Bhrigu’. Bhrigu is the name of one of the great sages of Hindu legend.
BharuchaIndian (Parsi) Refers to the city of Bharuch in Gujarat, India, which is thought to be derived from the name of a figure in Hindu mythology.
BiarujiaTaneraic This is the only existing surname derived from Javant Biarujia’s constructed personal language, Taneraic, which he created over several decades. The meaning is unknown.
BiddulphEnglish From the name of a town in Staffordshire, England, derived from Old English bī meaning "beside" and dylf meaning "digging" (a derivative of delfan "to dig").