BakhshUrdu Derived from Persian بخش (bakhsh) meaning "fortune, lot, share, portion".
BakkumDutch Habitational name from a village in North Holland province, Netherlands, derived from Old Germanic *baka "back, curve, elevated place" and Old Dutch hēm "home, house; settlement, hamlet".
BakshiIndian, Bengali, Punjabi Derived from Persian بخشی (baxši) meaning "paymaster, scribe, secretary", used as a title for officials who distributed wages in Muslim armies.
BalageSinhalese Means "military, forces, cavalry", derived from Sanskrit बल (bala) meaning "strength, might" combined with the Sinhala suffix ගේ (ge) meaning "of, home, house".
BalboaGalician Habitational name from the city of Balboa, named with Latin vallis bona 'pleasant valley'.
BalcomEnglish Altered spelling of English Balcombe, a habitational name from Balcombe in West Sussex, which is named with Old English bealu "evil, calamity" (or the Old English personal name Bealda) combined with cumb "valley".
BaldisFrisian Frisian, Dutch, and North German: from a reduced and altered form of the personal name Balthasar (see Baltazar).
BallonSpanish Theoretically it could be a variant of vallón, from valle ‘valley’, but neither form is attested as a vocabulary word or as a place name element. Alternatively, it could be a Castilian spelling of Catalan Batlló, Balló, nicknames from diminutives of batlle ‘dancing’.English: variant spelling of Balon.
BallouHaitian Creole, French (Caribbean), French The Ballou name comes from that Medieval landscape of northwestern France known as Brittany. The name Ballou was originally derived from the family having lived in Brittany, where this distinguished family was established from ancient times... [more]
BallutFrench Derived from Old Occitan baluter, cognate of French bluter (via Middle French beluter), meaning "to sift, to sieve, especially the flour from the bran", this name used to denote a miller.
BanglaBengali From বাংলা (Bangla), the endonym of the Bengali people, the region of Bengal (including Bangladesh), and the Bengali language. The word itself is derived either from Vanga, the name of an ancient kingdom on the Indian subcontinent, or from an Austric word meaning "sun god".
BanjarArabic From the name of the Banjar people, itself derived from Javanese mbanjarke meaning "separate, rearrange, organize". This surname is borne by people of Indonesian ancestry in Saudi Arabia.
BankovRussian Feminine Bankova (Russian: Банкова) is a Russian surname derived from банковское meaning Bank, Banking.
BanksyEnglish, Popular Culture This is pseudonyms Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. Banksy's real name might be Robin Gunningham. How Banksy got his pseudonym is unknown... [more]
BansalIndian, Hindi, Punjabi Most likely derived from Sanskrit वंश (vansha) meaning "lineage, clan, race" or "bamboo".
BantamEnglish (African), South African Possibly a variant of Bentham. In an alternate interpretation, it could also be from the word "bantam" which denotes someone who's small but mighty.
BantanArabic From the name of the Indonesian province of Banten, originally indicating a person originally from that region.
BaragaSlovene A Slovene surname of unknown origin. A notable bearer was Slovene-American Roman Catholic bishop Frederic Baraga (1797-1868), who was the bishop of Marquette, a town in Upper Michigan, USA. There is also a village in Upper Michigan named Baraga, which was named after the bishop.
BarakiEthiopian, Amharic From the given name Baraki, meaning "one who blesses" in Amharic. It is possibly related to Arabic Barak 2 and Hebrew Baruch, also meaning "blessed".
BarbonFrench (Quebec) Derived from the nickname barbon meaning "old codger" as well as referring to a "confirmed bachelor".
BarchoCircassian Possibly derived from an Adyghe word meaning "band, lace", referring to someone who made ropes or binding tapes, or from a Chechen word referring to a tailor.
BardenEnglish English: habitational name from places in North and West Yorkshire named Barden, from Old English bere ‘barley’ (or the derived adjective beren) + denu ‘valley’.
BaresiItalian Variant of Barrese. A famous bearer is Franchino "Franco" Baresi (1960-), as well as his brother Giuseppe Baresi (1958-), both former Italian soccer players.
BarhamEnglish English: habitational name from any of the various places so called. Most, for example those in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, are named with Old English beorg ‘hill’ + ham ‘homestead’. The one in Kent, however, is from an unattested Old English byname Biora, Beora (a derivative of bera ‘bear’) + ham.
BarileItalian From Italian barile "barrel" either an occupational name for a Cooper or a nickname for a fat man.
BarkerEnglish SURNAME Town cryer, or someone who shouts out notices
BarkisEnglish Meant "person who works in a tannery" (from Middle English barkhous "tannery" - bark was used in the tanning process). A fictional bearer is Barkis, a carrier in Charles Dickens's 'David Copperfield' (1849) who sends a message via David to Clara Peggotty that "Barkis is willin'" (i.e. to marry her).
BarkusEnglish Probably a reduced form of Barkhouse, a topographic name for someone who lived by a tannery, Middle English barkhous, or an occupational name for someone who worked in one.
BarrowEnglish Habitational name from any of the numerous places named with Old English bearo, bearu "grove" or from Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, which is named with an unattested Celtic word, barr, here meaning "promontory", and Old Norse ey "island"... [more]
BarsbyEnglish Derived from the Old Norse word barn, which occured as a byname and meant "child", and Old Norse býr "farm, settlement"
BartekPolish, Czech, Slovak, German Polish, Czech, Slovak, and eastern German: from a pet form of a vernacular form of the personal name Bartolomaeus (Czech Bartoloměj, Polish Bartłomiej, German Bartolomäus)
BaskinJewish Means "son of Baske", a Yiddish female personal name (a pet-form of the Biblical name Bath Seba). Baskin-Robbins is a US chain of ice-cream parlours founded in Glendale, California in 1945 by Burt Baskin (1913-1969) and Irv Robbins (1917-2008).
BaucomEnglish Variant spelling of BALCOMBE, a habitational name from West Sussex derived from Old English bealu "evil" and cumb "valley".
BaudryFrench Derived from the medieval French given name Baudry, which was a variant form of Baudric, a given name that itself was a variant form of Baldéric (see Baldric)... [more]
BaylisEnglish Derived from the Middle English 'bail(l)i', a development of the Old French 'baillis'. In Scotland the word survives as 'bailie', the title of a chief magistrate for a part of a county or barony. The word survives in England as 'bailiff', an officer who serves writs and summonses for the court.
BaylonSpanish Spanish: variant of Bailón ( see Bailon ).
Baz-oolTuvan (Rare) Means "another boy" from Tuvan база (baza) meaning "also, too, another" combined with оол (ool) "son, boy".
BeaberEnglish (American) Americanized spelling of German Bieber or Biber, from Middle High German biber ‘beaver’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way, a topographic name for someone who lived in a place frequented by beavers or by a field named with this word, or a habitational name from any of various place names in Hesse containing this element.
BeatonEnglish As an English surname, it is derived from either the French town of Béthune, or from the medieval diminutive Beaton, short for Bartholomew or Beatrice... [more]
BecherGerman Shortened form of Becherer as well as a surname given to for someone who distilled or worked with pitch, in which case it is derived from Middle High German bech / pech "pitch".
BechetEnglish A famous bearer of this surname was Sidney Bechet (1897–1959), an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.
BedellEnglish This place name derives from the Old English words byde, meaning "tub," and "well," meaning a "spring," or "stream." As such, Bedell is classed as a habitational name.
BednářCzech Bednář means "hooper, cooper" in Czech.
BedoniItalian Probably of French origin, from betun "mud" or bedon "paunch, pot belly".
BedoyaSpanish Castilianized form of Bedoia. Name for someone from Bedoña, in the Spanish province Gipuzkoa. Bedoña likely comes from Basque bedi "pasture grazing" and -oña, suffix for a place name.
BeedenEnglish (British) Probably means "from Beeden", a village near Newbury in Berkshire. Ultimately coming from either Old English byden, meaning "shallow valley", or from the pre 7th century personal name Bucge with the suffix dun, meaning "hill of Bucge".
BeemanEnglish (British) The name Beeman first arose amongst the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It is derived from their having lived near a mountain. This name was brought to England by the Normans, and is a corruption of the Norman French name Beaumont, which means beautiful mountain.
BéguinFrench Nickname from beguin, a member of a medieval Christian male religious community (ultimately named after a priest called Lambert le Bègue) that followed a monastic rule without making perpetual vows and was quickly considered heretic; by extension the term came to mean "sanctimonious person".
BelletFrench Comes from a derivative of bel ‘handsome’.
BellewEnglish, Irish Of Norman origin: habitational name from any of the various places in northern France, such as Belleu (Aisne), named in Old French with bel ‘beautiful’ + l(i)eu ‘place’, or from Belleau (Meurthe-et-Moselle), which is named with Old French bel ‘lovely’ + ewe ‘water’ (Latin aqua), or from Bellou (Calvados), which is probably named with a Gaulish word meaning ‘watercress’... [more]
BellocFrench Habitational name for a person from the commune of Belloc in southwestern France, of unknown etymology.
Ben AliArabic (Maghrebi), Comorian Maghrebi transcription of Arabic بن علي (bin Ali) meaning "son of Ali 1". A notable bearer was Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1936-2019), who served as the president of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011.
BenčićCroatian Habitational name for someone from Benčići, Croatia.
BenderGerman, German (East Prussian) As a German surname, Bender is a regional occupational surname from the Rhineland area denoting a "barrel-maker" (the Standard German Fassbinder became "Fassbender" in the local dialects and ultimately was shortened to Bender).... [more]
Ben-hurJewish, Literature Means "son of Hur" in Hebrew. This was also the name of the protagonist of both the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ and the 1959 film adaptation Ben-Hur, named Judah Ben-Hur.
BennerGerman Occupational name for a basket and bassinet maker, from an agent derivative of Middle High German benne 'work basket', 'bassinet', 'cradle'.
Ben NunHebrew Joshua or Yehoshua Ben Nun functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Exodus and Numbers, and later succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelite tribes in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua