BarneyEnglish Habitational name for a person from the village of Barney in Norfolk, derived from Old English bere "barley" or a genitive form of the given name Bera and ieg "island".
BarnumEnglish (American, Americanized, Modern) Barnum originated as an altered form of the English surname Barnham, a habitational name from places called Barnham in Suffolk and West Sussex, or Barnham Broom in Norfolk, meaning "homestead of the family or followers of a man named Beorn".
BarringtonEnglish, Irish English: habitational name from any of several places called Barrington. The one in Gloucestershire is named with the Old English personal name Beorn + -ing- denoting association + tun ‘settlement’... [more]
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]
BarrowmanEnglish A man employed in wheeling a barrow; specifically, in coal-mining, one who conveys the coal in a wheelbarrow from the point where it is mined to the trolleyway or tramway on which it is carried to the place where it is raised to the surface.
BarrymoreEnglish, Irish (Anglicized) Habitational name for a person from a barony in County Cork, derived from an Anglicized form of Irish Barraigh Mhóra, derived from Irish barr "crop, yield" and mór "big, large, great"... [more]
BarsbyEnglish Derived from the Old Norse word barn, which occured as a byname and meant "child", and Old Norse býr "farm, settlement"
BarthorpeEnglish This surname originates from the village of the same name in the East Riding of Yorkshire, likely combining the Old Norse personal name Bǫrkr with Old Norse þorp meaning "village."
BartleyEnglish, American 1. English: habitational name from Bartley in Hampshire, or from Bartley Green in the West Midlands, both of which are named with Old English be(o)rc ‘birch’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’; compare Barclay... [more]
BartmanEnglish Last name Bartman is very rare but I believe it’s a English last name .Possibly variant of the last name BAUMAN
BarwickEnglish, German English: habitational name from any of various places called Barwick, for example in Norfolk, Somerset, and West Yorkshire, from Old English bere ‘barley’ + wic ‘outlying farm’, i.e. a granary lying some distance away from the main village.... [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".
BatchelorEnglish, Scottish Occupational name for an unmarried man, a young knight or a novice, ultimately from medieval Latin baccalarius "unenfeoffed vassal, knight with no retainers".
BateyEnglish (?) Originates from mostly northern England. Is the presumed given name to fishers. (With it meaning "Small fishing boat" in old English.)
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).
BatleyEnglish From the name of a town in Yorkshire, from Old English given name Bata and leah "woodland, clearing".
BattEnglish This is patronymic form of the medieval personal name "Batte", meaning "son of Batte", ... [more]
BattersbyEnglish Derives from the place of Battersby in North Yorkshire, which is composed of Old Norse personal name Bǫðvarr and the Old Norse suffix býr "farm, settlement"... [more]
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]
BaxEnglish Possibly a short form of Baxter, or maybe from the Anglo-Saxon word box, referring to the box tree.
BaxendaleEnglish Habitational name, probably an altered form of Baxenden, a place near Accrington, which is named with an unattested Old English word bæcstān meaning "bakestone" (a flat stone on which bread was baked) + denu meaning "valley"... [more]
BayEnglish, French, Dutch Derived from Middle English and Old French bay, bai and Middle Dutch bay, all meaning "reddish brown". It was originally a nickname for someone with a hair color similar to that.
BayerstoweEnglish From a locational name from Bairstow in West Yorkshire, probably so-called from the Old English elements beger "berry" and stow place.
BaygentsEnglish (American) Possibly derived from Old French bezant, a kind of silver or gold coin minted in Byzantium, ultimately derived from Latin byzantius "of Byzantium"... [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.
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.
BeachEnglish Name for someone living near a beach, stream, or beech tree.
BeakleyEnglish The surname Beakley is a nickname for a person with a prominent nose. Looking back further, we find the name Beakley was originally from the Old English word beke or the Old French word bec, each of which referred to the beak of a bird.
BeamEnglish From Old English beam "beam" or "post". It could be a topographic name from someone living near a post or tree, or it could be a metonymic occupational name for a weaver.... [more]
BeamishEnglish Habitational name for someone from Beaumais-sur-Dire in Calvados Beaumetz in Somme or one of three places called Beaumetz in Pas-de-Calais, all in northern France. In some cases it may be derived from a place called Beamish in County Durham... [more]
BearEnglish From the Middle English nickname Bere meaning "bear" (Old English bera, which is also found as a byname), or possibly from a personal name derived from a short form of the various Germanic compound names with this first element... [more]
BeardEnglish From a nickname for a bearded person.
BeardenEnglish English habitational name, a variant of Barden, or from places in Devon and Cornwall called Beardon.
BeardmoreEnglish A habitational name from a lost place (probably in the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England, where the surname is particularly common).
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]
BeaubienFrench (Quebec), English From French beau meaning "beautiful" and bien meaning "well, good". The name referred to someone with physical beauty.
BeauchampEnglish, French Habitational name for a person for any of the various places named Beauchamp in Northern France, derived from Old French beau "beautiful" and champ "field".
BeaufordEnglish Variation of Buford. It is derived from the French word "beau", meaning "beautiful", and "ford", an Old English word meaning "river crossing".
BeaufoyFrench (Anglicized, Rare), English (Rare) Anglicized form of Beaufay. Known bearers of this surname include the English astronomer and physicist Mark Beaufoy (1764-1827) and the British screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (b... [more]
BeauvoirEnglish From the surname of Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), a French feminist and philosopher.
BeckinghamEnglish From the name of two villages in England, one in Lincolnshire and one in Nottinghamshire.
BecklesEnglish From a place in Suffolk named "Beccles". From Old English bæce meaning "stream" and les meaning "meadow".
BeckleyEnglish This surname was taken from an English habitational name from any of the various places, in Kent, Oxfordshire, and Sussex, named Beckley whose name was derived from the Old English byname Becca and the Old English lēah "woodland clearing".... [more]
BecraftEnglish (American) English, variant of Beecroft. topographic name for someone who lived at a place where bees were kept, from Middle English bee ‘bee’ + croft ‘paddock’, ‘smallholding’.
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.
BedfordEnglish From the English county Bedfordshire and its principal city or from a small community in Lancashire with the same name. The name comes from the Old English personal name Beda, a form of the name Bede and the location element -ford meaning "a crossing at a waterway." Therefore the name indicates a water crossing once associated with a bearer of the medieval name.
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.
BeeEnglish From Middle English be meaning "bee", Old English beo, hence a nickname for an energetic or active person or a metonymic occupational name for a beekeeper.
BeerEnglish Habitational name from any of the forty or so places in southwestern England called Beer(e) or Bear(e). Most of these derive their names from the West Saxon dative case, beara, of Old English bearu "grove, wood"... [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.
BelladonnaEnglish (Rare), Popular Culture Named after an extremely poisonous plant (Atropa belladonna; also known as the deadly nightshade). One fictional bearer of this surname is Blake Belladonna, a main character from the popular web series RWBY.
BellersEnglish Name came from the son of a French Noble born in Leicestershire, England. Hamon Bellers took his last name after the Kirby Bellers (Bellars) which was the name of the land given to him by his father.
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]
BellmanSwedish, English Swedish and English form of Bellmann. A notable bearer was Swedish composer, poet and entertainer Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795).
BellmanEnglish Occupational name for someone who worked as a bell-ringer.
BellockEnglish, Irish Meaning "young bull". It was a nickname for energetic people, or those who owned bulls.
BelmontEnglish English surname of Norman origin, a variant of the surname Beaumont, which was derived from place names meaning "lovely hill" in Old French (from beu, bel "fair, lovely" and mont "hill").
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)... [more]
BenningfieldEnglish From the place name Benefield in Northamptonshire, composed of the Old English personal name Bera combined with -ing "belonging to" and feld "field".
BensenEnglish Related to Benson, meaning "Son of Ben"
BenthallEnglish From Old English beonet meaning "bent-grass" and halh meaning nook.
BenthamEnglish Habitational name from any of various places named Bentham, from Old English beonet "bent grass" + ham "homestead" or hamm "enclosure hemmed in by water".
BeresfordEnglish English: habitational name from a place in the parish of Alstonfield, Staffordshire named Beresford, from Old English beofor ‘beaver’ (or possibly from a byname from this word) + Old English ford ‘ford’... [more]
BerkeleyEnglish From any of the locations called Berkeley derived the elements beorc "birch" and leah "clearing, wood" meaning "birch clearing"... [more]
BerlinGerman, English Habitational name from the city in Germany, the name of which is of uncertain meaning. It is possibly derived from an Old Slavic stem berl- meaning swamp or from a West Slavic word meaning "river lake".
BerminghamEnglish (Modern, Rare) Bermingham is the Gaelicised version of 'De Birmingham' and is descended from the family of Warwickshire, England. The Irish version of the name MacFeorais/MacPheorais is derived from Pierce de Bermingham.
BernellEnglish From the Old French word brunel, a diminutive of brun, describing someone who had brown hair. It was occasionally also used as a descriptive first name during the middle ages in England.
BernerEnglish, Norman From the Norman personal name Bernier from Old English beornan ‘to burn’, hence an occupational name for a burner of lime (compare German Kalkbrenner) or charcoal... [more]
BessEnglish Popularly grown surname from the diminuative form of "Elizabeth" during any time of a Queen Elizabeth
BesteFrench, English Nickname from Middle English beste Old French beste "beast animal" (especially those used for food or work) applied either as a metonymic occupational name for someone who looked after beasts such as a herdsman or as a nickname for someone thought to resemble an animal... [more]
BeswickEnglish habitational name from any of the places in Lancashire and East Yorkshire named Beswick. The second element is Old English wic "outlying (dairy) farm"... [more]
BethanyEnglish Possibly a topographic name derived from the Old English plant name betonice meaning "betony". The form of the name has been altered by folk association with the New Testament place name.
BethencourtFrench, English, Portuguese (Rare) Bettencourt and Bethencourt are originally place-names in Northern France. The place-name element -court (courtyard, courtyard of a farm, farm) is typical of the French provinces, where the Frankish settlements formed an important part of the local population... [more]
BettanyEnglish Variant of Betteley in the West Midlands and variant of Beatley in East England with /n/ substituted for /l/.
BettencourtFrench, English, Portuguese (Rare) Bettencourt and Bethencourt are originally place-names in Northern France. The place-name element -court (courtyard, courtyard of a farm, farm) is typical of the French provinces, where the Frankish settlements formed an important part of the local population... [more]
BexleyEnglish Habitational name from Bexley (now Bexleyheath in Greater London), which was named from Old English byxe ‘box tree’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.
BickermanEnglish The toponym Bickerton is derived from the Old English beocere, which means bee-keeper, and tun, which originally denoted a fence or enclosure.
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").
BidwellEnglish Habitational name from any of the places called Bidwell in England or similar, all derived from Old English byden "vat, tub" and wille "spring, stream, well".
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]
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.