BickelGerman, German (Swiss), Jewish German: from bickel ‘pickaxe’ or ‘chisel’, hence a metonymic occupational name for someone who made pickaxes or worked with a pickaxe or for a stonemason. South German: from a pet form of Burkhart... [more]
BickhamEnglish Habitational name from places so named in Devon and Somerset, most of which are most probably named with an Old English personal name Bicca and Old English cumb "valley". The first element could alternatively be from bica "pointed ridge".
BiddleEnglish, Irish Variant of English BEADLE or German BITTEL. The name is now popular in the north east region of America, where it was brought by English and Irish immigrants.
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").
BiedermannGerman, Jewish nickname for an honest man from a compound of Middle High German biderbe "honorable" and man "man". Jewish surname adopted because of its honorific meaning from German bieder "honest, upright" and mann "man".
BiedrońPolish Nickname, either from dialect biedron ‘spotted bullock’, or for someone with conspicuous or deformed hips, from a derivative of dialect biedro ‘hip’.
BiehlGerman From Middle Low German bil "hatchet", Middle High German biel; given to someone who made or used hatchets.
BielPolish, Czech, Slovak Nickname for a white- or fair-haired person, from Polish biel, Old Czech bielý, Slovak biely "white".
BielawskiPolish This indicates familial origin within the Masovian village of Bielawa.
BielecPolish Nickname for a man with white hair or a blond beard, from biały meaning "white".
BieleckiPolish Habitational name for someone from a place called Bielcza, derived from Polish biel meaning "white".
BielerGerman, Jewish Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from any of the many places in eastern Europe whose name incorporates the Slavic element byel- ‘white’.... [more]
BielińskiPolish Habitational name for someone from any of various places named Bielin, Bielina, Bielino or Bieliny, all derived from Polish biel meaning "white".
BiệnVietnamese From Sino-Vietnamese 边 (biān) meaning "edge".
Bien-AiméHaitian Creole Means "beloved" from French bien meaning "good" and aimé meaning "love".
BierGerman, Jewish from Middle High German bier "beer" German bier Yiddish bir a metonymic occupational name for a brewer of beer or a tavern owner or in some cases perhaps a nickname for a beer drinker.
BierbaumGerman German: topographic name for someone who lived by a pear tree, Middle Low German berbom. Compare Birnbaum.
BierceEnglish, Welsh English variant and Welsh form of Pierce. A famous bearer was the American author, journalist and poet Ambrose Bierce (1842-c. 1914), who wrote The Devil's Dictionary and other works... [more]
BieriGerman (Swiss) Derived from a diminutive of the given name Pierre which was also commonly used in German-speaking Switzerland.
BierschbachGerman German habitational name from a lost or unidentified place.
BiesheuvelDutch From Biesheuvel, the name of a small village in the north of the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. It is derived from Dutch bies meaning "bulrush, club rush" (a grasslike plant that grows in wetlands and damp locations) and heuvel meaning "hill"... [more]
BiesiadaPolish Nickname from biesiada meaning "feast", "banquet", probably for someone who liked to feast.
BiesiadeckiPolish Possible name for a person who came from Biesiadki or Biesiadka in Poland.
BiggersScottish, English Possibly related to the Scottish place name Biggar in South Lanarkshire or the English place name Biggar in Cumbria
BigginsEnglish Habitational name from any of the various places in England named with northern Middle English bigging "building" (from Old Norse). This word came to denote especially an outbuilding, and is still used in and around Northumberland and Cumbria.
BiggsEnglish Derived from the ancient word, "bigga", meaning large.
BiglinEnglish (British) German origin, settled by a single farmer in East Yorkshire in 1750. The name comes from the phrase "big land" meaning someone who owns alot of land.
BigotFrench Either from Old French bigot possibly meaning "beggar" or from the Norman interjection bî got ("by God"), used as a pejorative nickname for the Normans... [more]
BilbaoSpanish Spanish: Habitational Name From The City Of Bilbao In Biscay Basque Country.
BilderbackGerman (Modern, Archaic) German: habitational name from any of the three places in northern Germany named Billderbeck, formerly Bilderbeck.... [more]
BilekCzech Nickname for a fair-haired person, from bílek "whiteness", a derivative of bílý "white".
BilenTurkish Means "knowing, cognizant" in Turkish.
BillinghurstEnglish It indicates familial origin within the eponymous village in West Sussex.
BillingsEnglish It comes from the old English bil, meaning "sword or halberd", though the word later came to refer to a pruning hook used to harvest fruit. It's also possible that the name comes from a location in ancient England called Billing, which would've gotten its name from the same source.
BillingslyEnglish Habitational name from a place in Shropshire named Billingsley, from Old English Billingesleah, probably 'clearing (Old English leah) near a sword-shaped hill'
BinettiItalian Comes from a diminutive of Bino. Italianized form of French 'Binet'. Habitational name from a place called Binetto (named with Latin vinetum ‘vineyard’) in Bari province.
BingelGerman A topographic name derived from a diminutive of Middle High German binge, which means "depression", "ditch", or "pit". May also be derived from pingel, which is a Westphalian nickname for a pedantic person.
BingerEnglish Derived from the Old English name Binningas, which was a name for someone who lived near stables.
BinghamEnglish Ultimately deriving from the toponym of Melcombe Bingham in Dorset. The name was taken to Ireland in the 16th century, by Richard Bingham, a native of Dorset who was appointed governor of Connaught in 1584... [more]
BingleyEnglish Habitational surname for someone originally from the town of Bingley in West Yorkshire, England. The name is either derived from the given name Bynna combined with the suffix -inga meaning "the people of" or from the Old English elements bing meaning "hollow" and leah meaning "woodland, clearing".
BiniItalian Comes from the given name Albino and other names ending with -bino ending.
BinkEnglish Topographic name for someone living by a bink, a northern dialect term for a flat raised bank of earth or a shelf of flat stone suitable for sitting on. The word is a northern form of modern English bench.
BirchEnglish, German, Danish, Swedish (Rare) From Middle High German birche, Old English birce, Old Danish birk, all meaning "birch". This was likely a topographic name for someone living by a birch tree or a birch forest... [more]
BirchallEnglish Probably a habitational name from Birchill in Derbyshire or Birchills in Staffordshire, both named in Old English with birce "birch" + hyll "hill".
BirnbaumGerman Topographic name for someone who lived by a pear tree, from Middle High German bir "pear" and boum "tree".
BirneyEnglish Scottish: habitational name from a place in Morayshire, recorded in the 13th century as Brennach, probably from Gaelic braonach 'damp place'.
BirnieScottish Part of the clan MacInnes from the Scottish highlands. It was originally the name of a church (Burn-nigh) which became Birnie or Birney.
BissonnetteFrench (Quebec) North American spelling of French Bissonet, a topographic name from a diminutive of Old French buisson meaning "bush, scrub".
BitsillyNavajo Means "his younger brother", from Navajo bi- meaning "his" and atsilí meaning "younger brother".
BitsuieNavajo From bitsóí meaning "his grandchild", a commonly adopted surname when the BIA required Native Americans to take surnames for the purpose of official records.
BjörnSwedish Means "bear" in Swedish. Either taken directly from the given name (see Björn) or from a nickname for a big, hairy person. It may also be derived from a place named with the element björn.
BjörnbergSwedish Ornamental name derived from Swedish björn meaning "bear" and berg meaning "mountain".
BlachPolish Alternatively perhaps a metonymic occupational name from Old Polish blach ‘skeet iron’, ‘metal fittings’.
BlacherFrench Mainly used in Southern France. Topographic name for someone who lived by an oak grove, originating in the southeastern French dialect word blache ‘oak plantation’ (said to be of Gaulish origin), originally a plantation of young trees of any kind.
BlacksmithEnglish Occupational name for a blacksmith, a smith who work with iron. The name is rare in England and mostly found in North America, suggesting that it's a translation of a non-English name meaning "blacksmith" (see Kowalski, Raudsepp and Lefèvre for example).
BlagaRomanian Probably related to several places named Blaga in Romania.
BlagdenAnglo-Saxon Blagden is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called Blackden or Blagdon, or Blagden farm in Hempstead, Essex. Blackden in Cheshire, Blagden in Essex and Blagdon in Northumberland share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the dark or black valley", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "blaec", black, with "denu", valley, while the places called Blagdon in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, recorded as Blakedone in 1242, Blakeson in 1234, and Blachedone in the Domesday Book of 1086 respectively mean "the black hill", derived from the Old English "blaec", black, and "dun", down, hill, mountain... [more]
BlakewayEnglish Literally means "black way", thus referring to a black road near which the original bearer must have lived. A famous bearer of this surname was Jacob Blakeway (b. 1583-?), the biological father of Mayflower passenger Richard More (1614-1696).
BlakewoodMedieval English Derived from the Old English words blaec, which means black, and wudu, which means wood, and indicates that the original bearer lived near a dark, wooded area.
BlandEnglish Bland is a habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire called Bland, the origin of which is uncertain. Possibly it is from Old English (ge)bland ‘storm’, ‘commotion’ (from blandan ‘to blend or mingle’), with reference to its exposed situation... [more]
BlandfordEnglish Habitational name from Blandford Forum and other places called Blandford in Dorset (Blaneford in Domesday Book), probably named in Old English with bl?ge 'gudgeon' (genitive plural blægna) + ford 'ford'.
BlaneyIrish Topographic name from Welsh blaenau, plural of blaen "point, tip, end", i.e. uplands, or remote region, or upper reaches of a river.
BlankDutch Dutch and German nickname for a man with white or fair hair or a pale complexion, from Middle Low, Middle High German blanc "bright", "shining", "white", "beautiful", Middle Dutch blank "fair", "white".... [more]
BlankenbillerDutch Habitational name from a place called Blankenbijl or similar.
BlankenshipEnglish Variant of Blenkinsop, a surname derived from a place in Northumberland called Blenkinsopp. The place name possibly derives from Cumbric blaen "top" and kein "back, ridge", i.e. "top of the ridge", combined with Old English hōp "valley" (compare Hope).
BlantonScottish (Americanized, Modern) An americanized version of the old Scottish name Ballantine (other forms being Ballantyne, Bannatyne, Ballanden).
BlaseyFrench The name may have been associated with a 4th century (316) French saint Blasius of Armenie (Armienes,) and later introduced into and adopted by Yorkshire people as their saint of wool-combers from a Norman noble.
BlasioliItalian Ancient and illustrious Benevento family, called Blasi or Di Blasi, of clear and avita nobility.
BlasiusGerman, Dutch, Scandinavian From the Latin personal name Blasius. This was a Roman family name, originating as a byname for someone with some defect, either of speech or gait, from Latin blaesus "stammering" (compare Greek blaisos "bow-legged")... [more]
BlasquezSpanish From the medieval diminutive Velasco, from the Basque word 'bela' meaning "crow", and the diminutive suffix 'sko'.
BlattGerman, Jewish Ornamental name derived from German blatt and Yiddish blat meaning "leaf", or a topographic name for someone who lived at a farm on a ledge on a mountainside, derived from Middle High German blate meaning "flat surface, ledge, plateau".
BlaumGerman German last name, likely a variant of the last name Blom or Blum, referring to the word flower/blooming.
BlausteinGerman, Jewish Ornamental name from German blau "blue" and Stein "stone", i.e. lapis lazuli.
BlaxtonEnglish There are two possible origins for this surname; one- from the name of the village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster (part of South Yorkshire, England) on the border of Lincolnshire, or two- from the Old English personal name Blaecstan, meaning "black stone"
BlayFrench From Old French bloi 'blond', or a habitational name from a placename, perhaps by metanalysis from Blois in Loir-et-Cher, France. Usually someone with the lastname 'Blay' is a gentle or merry person.
BlaylockEnglish The surname of James P. Blaylock (1950-), an early steampunk author. His surname may mean "black lock" from Middle English blakelok, originally referring to a person with dark hair.
BłażejewskiPolish Name for someone from a place called Błażejewo, Błażejewice, Błażejewko or Błażej, all derived from the given name Błażej.
BlazerDutch from Middle Dutch blaser ‘blower’, hence an occupational name for a player of the trumpet or other wind instrument, or a nickname for a braggart or boaster
BlesseEnglish (British), Filipino, Indian, French The last name Blesse was first discovered in Oxfordshire and held a family seat as Lords of the Manor. In the Philippines, Blesse means "a blessing in the family." In India, Blesse means "bless you."
BlessingGerman, English Either a German patronymic from a variant of the personal name Blasius or a nickname for a bald person from Middle High German blas "bald bare"... [more]
BlewettEnglish From a medieval nickname for a blue-eyed person or one who habitually wore blue clothing (from Middle English bleuet "cornflower" or bluet "blue cloth").
BlissMedieval English, Medieval English (Anglicized) Originally a nickname for a cheerful person, derived from the Old English blisse, meaning "gladness" or "joy." Another origin of the surname is habitional, coming from from the village of Blay in Calvados (modern-day Normandy), spelled as Bleis in 1077, or from the village of Stoke Bliss in Worcestershire, first known as Stoke de Blez, named after the Norman family de Blez.... [more]
BlissettEnglish A different form of Blessed. A bearer of this surname is Luther Blissett (1958-), a Jamaican-born English footballer ("Luther Blissett" has been used since 1994 as a cover name for activists engaging in anti-cultural establishment polemics and spoofs on the internet and elsewhere).