Palin; Bayless
I'm looking for the origin of Palin (as in Michael Palin), and Bayless / Bayliss. I think the latter is English but I don't know about PalinThanks in advance.Elinor
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Bayless is English.This is what I found on Palin:
Welsh: Anglicized form of the Welsh patronymic ap Heilyn ‘son of Heilyn’, which is probably a derivative of a word meaning ‘to serve at table’.English: habitational name from Palling in Norfolk or Poling in Sussex. These were named in Old English with the personal names Palli and Pâl respectively, meaning ‘followers of’, ‘dependants of’.French: unexplained.Does that help any?

This message was edited 11/7/2007, 11:42 AM

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Bayless, English surname, originating in the Old French Baillis, "bailiff". Another French form, Bailli, gives us Bailey and its variants.
I should add, to cover all bases, that there is a Jewish surname, Beilis, whose spelling could have changed in an English-speaking country. That comes from the name of a female ancestor, Beile, which derives from the Russian word for "white".
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