Collins Dictionary Of Surnames: From Abbey to Mutton, Nabbs to Zouch

Blight (Eng) G. Pawley White, in his Handbook of Cornish Surnames, says that this is a nickname from Cornish blyth ‘wolf.’ It can have the alternative forms BLIGH and BLYTH.

In Our Mutual Friend Dickens comments: ‘The office door was opened by the dismal boy, whose appropriate name was Blight.’ Block, Blocker, Blogg, Bloggs (Eng) Occupational name of a maker of blocks, eg for book-binding, shoe-making, hat-making. The wooden blockhead of the hat-maker led to use of that term for a stupid person, and this may be the meaning of the surname Block.

Joe Bloggs, as the name of the average ordinary man, is also Joe Blow in American sources, or Joe Do(a)kes. In one of her blues numbers Billie Holiday sings: ‘But just let me walk out of the club one night with a young white boy of my age, whether it was John Roosevelt, the President’s son, or Joe Blow.’ This name was originally applied to a horn-blowing musician, then extended to any man. Joe Soap is similarly a name applied to a ‘dumb’ person, a mug, or any very ordinary person. In 1969 the Guardian said that: ‘Socialists have become over-eager to find out what Joe Soap is doing in order to tell him not to do it.’

Dickens’s Blockitt may belong here. In Dombey and Son occurs: ‘Mrs – ?’ ‘Blockitt, Sir?’ suggested the nurse, a simpering piece of faded gentility, who did not presume to state her name as a fact, but merely offered it as a mild suggestion.’

Bloom, Blomer, Bloomer, Blumer (Eng) Occupational name of an ironworker, who ran the liquid metal into moulds.

James Joyce changed the signification of Bloom for countless readers of his Ulysses by making it the name of his central character. The novel deals with the events of one day in 1924, June 16th, a date remembered annually by Joyce fans as ‘Bloomsday.’ During her long stream-of-conscienceness monologue, Molly Bloom comments ‘bloomers. I suppose they’re called after him I never thought that would be my name Bloom when I used to write it in print to see how it looked on a visiting card or practising for the butcher and oblige M Bloom you’re looking blooming Josie used to say after I married him well it’s better than Breen or Briggs …’ ‘Bloomers’ are in fact normally said to have been named for Mrs Amelia Bloomer, a writer on women’s suffrage and unjust marriage laws. Eric Partridge tells us, in his Name Into Word, ‘that female knickerbockers owed nothing to Mrs Amelia Bloomer except the fact that it was she who, circa 1850, started the earlier fashion from which the dress designers developed the latter.’ Mrs Bloomer herself, it seems, habitually wore a short skirt and long loose trousers, gathered at the ankles.

Blower, Bloor, Bloore, Blow, Blowers, Blowes, Blows (Eng) Occupational name of a man who operated bellows, or in some cases, a HORNBLOWER.

Blumersee BLOOM.

Bly, Blye, Blythesee BLIGH.

Boal, Boaler, Boalessee BOWLER.

Boatwright, Boatright, Botwright (Eng) Occupational name for a maker of boats.

Bockettsee BUCKET.

Bodin (Swedish) The Swedish form of BOOTH.

E.V. Cunningham makes a character in Lydia say: ‘Bodin - it doesn’t mean a blessed thing, does it? As a matter of fact, it’s another of those small appellative lies that we indulge in so frequently in America. My husband was half-Jewish. His father’s name was Bodinski, and the old man changed it.’

Boileausee DRINKWATER.

Bold (Eng) Nickname for a courageous man, or from residence in a place called Bold. The place-name derives from an Old English word bold ‘dwelling, building.’

Boldright, Boldwright, Boldry, Bowderysee BALDREY.

Bole, Bolersee BOWLER.

Bolister (Eng) Probably a form of BALLASTER.

Boll, Boiler, Bolles, Bollmansee BOWLER.

Bolton (Eng) Someone who came from one of the several places so-named because it was a ‘settlement with houses.’

Boltsmith (Eng) Occupational name of a man who made crossbow bolts.

Bomansee BOWMAN.

Bone, Bonn, Boon, Boone, Bown, Bowne, Bunn (Eng) A nickname for a ‘good’ person, from French bon. Also forms of a Norman name which is sometimes spelt BOHUN, though the pronunciation remains the same. This form rightly hints at a connection with the French place name Bohon, indicating an ancestor who came from there.

G.B.Shaw has a class-conscious waiter in You Never Can Tell who comments: ‘My own name is Boon, sir. By rights I should spell it with the aitch like you, sir, but I think it best not to take that liberty, sir. There is Norman blood in it, sir, and Norman blood is not a recommendation to a waiter.’

Bone also attracts comment in John Wain’s A Travelling Woman: ‘He tucked her name away in his memory: Barbara Bone. He surmised that her maiden name had been something more elegant than Bone.’

Booth, Boothe, Boothman (Eng) Someone who lived in a small hut, or bothy. He would probably have been a shepherd.

While this explanation applies to most bearers of these names, one young lady called Booth was given that name because she was found abandoned in a telephone booth.

Boothby (Eng) Someone who came from a place so-named because it was a ‘settlement with huts.’

Boothe, Boothmansee BOOTH.

Borkettsee BUCKET.

Bosanquet, Bosanketh (Cornish) Bos- in such names (usually transferred Cornish place names) means ‘dwelling.’ The second element of Bosanquet is probably the personal name Angawd. Similar Cornish names include Boscawen, Bosence, Bosustow, Bosisto, Boswarva.

Bossom, Bosence, Bosson, Bossons (Eng) Occupational names, forms of bo’sun or boatswain. A Sussex family named Bossom might look instead to an ancestor who came from Bosham ‘homestead of Bosa’s people.’

When a Mr Bossom became an MP, Neville Chamberlain is said to have remarked: ‘An odd name! Neither one thing nor the other!’

Boswall, Boswell (Scot) Descendant of someone who came from Beuzeville, Normandy.

Botler, Bottel, Bottlesee BUTLER.

BotwrightseeBoatwright.

Bottom, Botham, Bottams, Bottoms (Eng) Someone who lived in a broad valley. See also LONGBOTHAM.

Bouchersee BUTCHER.

Boudet, Boudin, Boudon, Boudot, Boudeausee BUTTON.

Boule, Boules, Boullersee BOWLER.

Bouquet, Bouquain, Bouquin, Bouquot, Bouquerelsee BUCKET.

Bourkesee BURKE.

Boutchersee BUTCHER.

Boutflour, Boughtflower, Bulteflour (Eng) A miller, literally a man whose job was to ‘sift flour.’

Boutonsee BUTTON.

Bovissee BEAVIS.

Bowen, Bowing, Bowinssee OWEN.

Bowler, Boal, Boaler, Boales, Bole, Boler, Boll, Boiler, Bolles, Bollman, Boule, Boules, Bouller, Bowie, Bowles, Bowlman (Eng) Occupational name of a maker/seller of bowls (used for drinking). Possibly also a nickname for someone who drank a great deal from bowls.

Bowman, Boman, Beauman (Eng) Occupational name of an archer.