BolDutch From Dutch bol "ball, sphere" or "bun, roll, round piece of bread or pastry", possibly an occupational name for a baker, a habitational name for someone who lived by a sign depicting a ball or globe, or a nickname for a bald man, or perhaps a ball player.
BolDutch Derived from the given name Baldo, a short form of names beginning with the element bald "bold, brave”.
BolajiNigerian This surname is very common in Nigeria. Possibly taken from a word in one of the Nigerian tribes languages.
BolanPopular Culture Surname of glam rock founder Marc Bolan. How he decided his surname is unknown, though it is known that it was derived from Bowland... [more]
BolarSpanish Topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of soil of a particular type known as tierra bolar.
BolasMedieval English English: habitational name from Great Bolas in Shropshire, named in Old English with an unidentified first element (possibly an unattested word bogel meaning ‘bend in a river’) + wæsse ‘land beside a river liable to flood’.
BoldEnglish From a nickname for a person willing to take risks, derived from Middle English bolde "daring, courageous", from Old English beald.
BoldEnglish Denoted a person who lived or worked in the main house or a habitational name for places in England so-called or similar, all derived from Middle English bold "habitation, building", from Old English bold.
BolingoliCentral African, Lingala Means "shining" in Lingala. This surname is borne by Belgian soccer player Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (1993-), more commonly known as Romelu Lukaku. Another famous bearer is Romelu's cousin Boli Bolingoli (1995-), also a noted soccer player.
BolithoCornish Habitational name for someone originally from the locality of Bolitho in western Cornwall, derived from Old Cornish bod or bos meaning "dwelling" combined with an unknown personal name.
BolkiahMalay (Rare) Meaning uncertain. It may be derived from Arabic وَاقِيَة (wāqiya) meaning "protector, preserver", or it may be an alteration of the Hadhrami surname بلفقيه (Balfaqih) from Arabic الفَقِيه (al-faqīh) meaning "the jurist"... [more]
BollandFrench, German, English From the Ancient Germanic name Bolland. Alternatively it derive from the place name Bowland from the Old English boga meaning "bow" and land meaning "land".
BollardFrench From a personal name composed of the Germanic elements boll "friend", "brother" + hard "hardy", "strong".
BollardEnglish, Irish According to MacLysaght, this surname of Dutch origin which was taken to Ireland early in the 18th century.
BolleItalian Means "bubbles" in Italian, derived from the singular bolla.... [more]
BollingEnglish, German nickname for someone with close-cropped hair or a large head, Middle English bolling 'pollard', or for a heavy drinker, from Middle English bolling 'excessive drinking'. German (Bölling): from a personal name Baldwin
BollingerGerman (Swiss) Habitational name for someone from any of three places called Bollingen, in Schwyz, Württemberg, and Oldenburg, or from Bohlingen near Lake Constance (which is pronounced and was formerly written as Bollingen).
BolsonaroPortuguese (Brazilian) Brazilian Portuguese cognate of Bolzonaro; in the case of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (1955-), his Italian paternal great-grandfather had the spelling changed from Bolzonaro upon emigrating to Brazil in the late 19th century.
BoltEnglish Either: an occupational name for an archer or a maker of bolts, or a nickname for a stocky or upright person, derived from Middle English bolt "bolt, crossbow bolt". A famous bearer of the name is Jamaican athletic sprinter Usain Bolt (1986-), widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time.
BolzonaroItalian Occupational name for a person who operated a battering ram, derived from Italian bolzone literally meaning "battering ram".
BomanSwedish Combination of Swedish bo (noun) "nest, farm, dwelling" and man "man".
BombaPortuguese, Spanish, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak From bomba "bomb", (Latin bombus), hence probably a nickname for someone with an explosive temperament, or a metonymic occupational name for an artilleryman.
BombadilLiterature In J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", the surname of Tom Bombadil, an enigmatic character not present in Peter Jackson's movie adaptation.
BomengenEnglish (American), Norwegian (Rare) Name created from during immigration from Norway to the United States in either the late 19th or early 20th century meaning, "The farm with the big gate."
BompadreItalian From a medieval given name Bonuspater, meaning "good father", given in hopes that the "eternal father (god)" would look kindly on the child. Was often given to abandoned infants as a surname.
BonFrench, Hungarian As a French surname, it is derived from Old French bon meaning "good", or occasionally from the Latin given name Bonus (borne by a minor 3rd-century Christian saint martyred at Rome with eleven companions under the Emperor Vespasian... [more]
BonaCatalan, Spanish Catalan and Spanish surname derived from the Catalan word bona meaning good
BonacciItalian "Bona" comes from the Italian for good, "Buona" and "cci" is ancient Latin form for "man." Thus, "the good man." A derivation of FiBonacci, or "son of Bonacci." Was the name of the famous mathematician, Leondardo de Pisa: Leonardo of Pisa is now known as Fibonacci short for filius Bonacci... [more]
BonaiutoItalian Derived from the Medieval names Bonaita or Bonaiutus or also from the Medieval Italian bon meaning "good" and aita meaning "help"... [more]
BonalFrench This is a surname formed from the Latin root "bonus" (= good) and the Germanic "wald" (waldan = govern). Bonwald meaning good governor.
BonaparteItalian (Rare), French (Rare), Judeo-Italian (Rare), American, Caribbean Variant and French form of Buonaparte, later adopted as a Jewish surname. It has also been adopted in parts of America and the Caribbean by admirers of the notable bearer Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1820), who ruled as Emperor of France from 1804 through 1814 and again briefly in 1815, who was of Italian (Tuscan) ancestry.
BonarScottish, Northern Irish From a medieval nickname for a courteous or good-looking person (from Middle English boner "gentle, courteous, handsome"). A notable bearer of the surname was Canadian-born British Conservative politician Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), prime minister 1922-23.
BonarIrish A "translation" of Irish Gaelic Ó Cnáimhsighe "descendant of Cnáimhseach", a nickname meaning literally "midwife" and ostensibly a derivative of Gaelic cnámh "bone".
BonaseraSicilian Derived from the expression bona sera "good evening". This name was applied as a nickname either for someone who made frequent use of this salutation or as a personal name bestowed on a child as an expression of gratitude in the sense "it was a good evening when you were born".
BonbaBasque, Spanish From Basque bonba meaning "bomb", (Latin bombus), hence probably a nickname for someone with an explosive temperament, or a metonymic occupational name for an artilleryman.
BondeSwedish, Old Swedish, Danish From Old Norse bóndi "farmer". Used as both a last name and a (rare) given name in Sweden (see Bonde for the given name and Bondesson as an example of a patronymic derived from this name)... [more]
BoneraItalian Derived from the medieval Italian given name Bonora or Buonora meaning "good hour" or "finally", often given to children whose birth was long-awaited or celebrated, or who were born early in the morning... [more]
BonesEnglish Derives from bon, "good" in Old French.
BonetCatalan, French, Italian From a medieval personal name, a diminutive of bon 'good' or the corresponding nickname. French variant of "Bonnet", and Italian variant of Bonneto
BongiornoItalian Italian from the medieval personal name Bongiorno (composed of bono ‘good’ + giorno ‘day’), bestowed on a child as an expression of the parents’ satisfaction at the birth (‘it was a good day when you were born’).
BongiovanniItalian Comes from the personal name Giovanni composed of the elements bon ‘good’ + Giovanni, Italian equivalent of John
BongioviItalian Comes from the given name Giovi, combination of bon 'good' + Giovi.
BoniadiPersian (Rare) Probably indicated a person from the Iranian village of Boniad, possibly derived from Persian بنیاد (bonyad) meaning "foundation, base". A notable bearer is Iranian-English actress Nazanin Boniadi (1980-).
BonicaItalian Possibly derived from a feminine personal name derived from Latin bonus "good".
BonkobaraJapanese From 盆 (bon) meaning "tray, bowl, basin, lantern festival", combined with 子 (ko, shi) meaning "child, sign of the rat", and 原 (hara) meaning "field, plain".
BonnefoyFrench The name is derived from the French words bonne, meaning good, and foi meaning faith.
BonnellScottish From Bonhill, a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.
BonnemaisonFrench Literally means "good house", derived from French bonne "good" and French maison "house". As such, this surname is most likely a locational surname, in that it originally either referred to someone who lived in a good house (probably more like a mansion) or to someone who was born in (or lived in) the place Bonnemaison, which is nowadays located in the Calvados department of France... [more]
BonsallEnglish (British) This is a locational name which originally derived from the village of Bonsall, near Matlock in Derbyshire. The name is Norse-Viking, pre 10th Century and translates as 'Beorns-Halh' - with 'Beorn' being a personal name meaning 'Hero' and 'Halh' a piece of cultivated land - a farm.
BontempsFrench Derived from Old French bon temps meaning "good time". One popular bearer of the name is the American poet and novelist Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902-1973).
BontragerGerman Coming from the Old German, Bonträger or Bornträger, meaning 'water carrier'.
BookbinderEnglish Occupational name for someone who binds pages to make a book, derived from Middle English bokebynder.
BookeAmerican American variant of the German name Buche meaning "beech" in reference to the beech tree. Notable bearer is the actor Sorrell Booke (1930-1994).
BookmanGerman (East Prussian) Bookman, as a surname, derives from East Purssian origin. It is the American version of “Buchmann” with “Buch” meaning book in German, and “Mann” meaning man, creating the Americanized German surname Bookman.
BookwalterEnglish (American) German: variant of Buchwalder, a habitational name for someone from any of various places called Buchwald or Buchwalde in Saxony and Pomerania, meaning 'beech forest'. The surname Buchwalter is very rare in Germany.... [more]
BoolEnglish This surname derives from the Old English pre 7th Century bula, or the Medieval English bulle, bolle, meaning "bull", and was given as a nickname to one with great physical strength.
BoomDutch From Old Dutch bom "tree", a nickname for someone tall or robust, or a toponymic surname for someone who lived by a notable tree. It could also be an occupational name for someone who operated a boom barrier
BoomgaardenEast Frisian, Dutch From Dutch boomgaard "orchard", literally "tree garden", an occupational name for an orchard worker or a topographic name for someone who lived in or by an orchard.
BoonstraWest Frisian, Dutch Denoted someone who cam from the town of Oldeboorn, named for the nearby De Boarn river, related to Middle Dutch borne "well, spring, source".
BoormanEnglish This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and may be either a topographical name for someone who lived in a particularly noteworthy or conspicuous cottage, from the Old English bur "bower, cottage, inner room" with mann "man", or a locational name from any of the various places called Bower(s) in Somerset and Essex, which appear variously as Bur, Bure and Bura in the Domesday Book of 1086.
BoothroydEnglish Habitational name for a person from the village named Boothroyd in Yorkshire, from Middle English both "hut, stall" and royd "cleared land" (derived from Old English rod).
BorákCzech Habitational name for someone from one of many places named with bor meaning "pine forest"; alternatively from a short form of the personal names Dalibor or Bořivoj, containing the element -bor meaning "battle".
BorénSwedish Combination of an unknown first element and the common surname suffix -én (originally from Latin -enius "descendant of"). Also possible habitational name derived from places named with Bor-, such as Borås, Borensberg, and Borlänge... [more]
BorenGerman Of unclear origin, most likely a variant of the German surname Born.
BorgesPortuguese, Spanish Possibly from Old French burgeis meaning "town-dweller" (see Burgess). Alternately, it may have denoted someone originally from the city of Bourges in France.