Origin
Ball : 1: English: from Middle English bal ball(e) ‘ball sphere globe round body’ (Old French balle or Old English beall(a)) a nickname for a short obese person.2: English: topographic name for someone who lived on or by a knoll or rounded hill from the same Middle English word bal(le) as in 1 above but applied topographically.3: English: from a Middle English adjective ball (weak form balle) in the sense ‘bald’ from ball ‘white streak bald place’.4: English: from Balle an Old Norse personal name found in placenames in England. The Scandinavian name may be for ballr ‘dangerous’ in an older sense of ‘brave’ or bǫllr ‘ball’.5: South German: from Middle High German bal ‘ball’ possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for a juggler or a habitational name from a place so named in the Rhine area.6: German: from a short form of any of various ancient Germanic personal names formed with the element bald (see Bald).7: Americanized form of Dutch Bal.
Bal : 1: Indian (Punjab): Sikh name based on the name of a Jat tribe from Sanskrit bala ‘strength’.2: Turkish: ornamental name nickname or metonymic occupational name from bal ‘honey’.3: Polish: from Bal a short form of the personal name Baltazar. This surname is also found among Rusyns (Lemkos).4: French and Dutch: from a short form of a personal name of ancient Germanic origin based on the element bal presumably meaning ‘torment spitefulness’ (see Ballard and Ballon) or bald ‘bold’ (see Baldwin).5: Dutch: perhaps also from bal ‘ball’ a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a ball or a metonymic occupational name denoting a manufacturer of balls (compare the surname Balmakers).6: Sorbian: from a short form of the personal name Bałcar (see Baltazar) or Baltyn (see Valentine). It is found mainly in the Germanized form Bahl.
Bald : 1: German: from the ancient Germanic personal name Baldo or a short form of various compound names such as Baldwin formed with the first element bald ‘bold strong’.2: Scottish and English: from the Norman personal name Bald(e) Baud(e) occasionally Bold a short form of the common ancient Germanic personal names Baldwin or Baldric or possibly a survival of Old English Beald (compare Balding); the relevant element in each of these is b(e)ald ‘brave’. As a hereditary surname it seems to have died out in England but survives in Scotland.3: English and Scottish: nickname for a bald man from Middle English ballede ‘ball-shaped’ (perhaps ‘corpulent’) from bal(le) ‘ball’ (Old English ball or Old Norse bǫllr).
Baller : 1: English: occupational name from an agent derivative of Middle English bal ball(e) ‘ball sphere’ perhaps denoting a ball maker.2: English: variant of Ball 2 for someone who lived at a knoll from a derivative of Middle English bal ball(e) ‘knoll rounded hill’ the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.3: German: from a variant of the ancient Germanic personal name Balther (from bald ‘bold strong’).
Balvin : 1: Perhaps a shortened form of Irish O'Ballevan itself an Americanized form of Ó Balbhán ‘descendant of the little dumb one’ (see Balfe).2: Spanish: variant of Balbin.
Bawtry : from Bawtry in WR Yorks. The origin of the place-name is disputed. The first element may be Old English ball ‘ball’ or ballede ‘ball-shaped or bald’ or a given name Balda; the second is trēow ‘tree’.
Bilotta : Italian (southern):: 1: from a French personal name Bil(l)ot a short form of Robillot a pet form of Robert.2: from Old French billotte denoting a ball game using small balls presumably a nickname for an inveterate player.
Bolle : 1: German and Dutch: from the ancient Germanic personal name Baldo a short form of various compound names with the first element bald ‘bold’.4: French: from the ancient Germanic personal name Bolo Bollo a short form of various compound names with the first element bolo ‘friend’ ‘brother’.2: German: nickname in the south for a short fat man or a topographic name in the north from Middle Low German bolle ‘knoll rounded hill’.3: Dutch: from Middle Dutch bolle ‘ball bread bun’ hence a metonymic occupational name for a baker or a nickname for a ball player.5: Norwegian: habitational name from a farm in northern Norway so named with bolle ‘rounded hill’.6: Swedish and English (Middlesex): variant of Boll.7: Italianized or Germanized form of Slovenian Bole.
Boller : 1: South German and Swiss German (also Böller): habitational name for someone from any of several places called Boll (see Boll) derived from the topographic term from Middle High German bolle ‘round container’ Middle Low German bolle ‘anything ball shaped’.2: South German and Swiss German: nickname for a noisy blustering person from Middle High German bollen ‘to bluster’.3: German: from a Low German short form of the personal name Baldwin.4: Hungarian (Böllér): occupational name for a butcher's apprentice böllér.
Galuszka : Polish (also Gałuszka):: 1: derivative of the personal name Gal.2: nickname from the dialect word gałuska ‘little ball little knob’ probably denoting someone with a prominent mole or carbuncle. Compare Galuska.
Hannibal : 1: German: from a post-humanist personal name Hannibal (see 2 below).2: English: post-medieval variant of Annable from Middle English Amabil Annabel. This female personal name fell out of fashion in the late Middle Ages and the source of the surname was no longer recognized. It was re-interpreted in the 16th century by classically educated gentlemen as being the name of the Carthaginian general Hannibal (247–182 BC). The surname was also sometimes later re-etymologized as honey + ball or bell hence spellings such as Honeyball and Hunnibell. In this new guise it coincided with an established variant of Annable with initial H-.
Hayball : unexplained; perhaps from Middle English hei hai ‘hay’ + bale ball ‘bale’ used as a nickname for a fat person or possibly from hei hai + ball ‘rounded hill hillock’.
Hurlbatt : from Middle English hurlen ‘to hurl throw with force thrust’ + Middle English bat ‘a stout wooden stick staff club cudgel or flail’ also ‘a war mace’. It may have been used of a warrior on horse or on foot who was skilled in using a mace or a military flail (a spiked ball on a chain) but the social rank of the earliest known bearers of the surname is unknown. Alternatively its original bearers may have been players or referees in the sport of hurlebat. A text of about 1450 mentions ‘Pleying ... at þe hurlebatte’ along with ‘Pleying at þe two hande swerd at swerd and bokelere and at two pyked staf’. In common with these other fighting games it was perhaps a two-man combat using cudgels or maces but a later English writer (1565–73) states that the sport was played with aclides (Latin aclides ‘small javelins’) defined as ‘short battes of a cubit long and a halfe with pykes of yron ... [which] were tied to a line that when they were throwne one might plucke them again’ (see OED at hurlbat). The playing of hurlebat in either of these forms in earlier centuries is conjectural but compare Ricardus Hurlesticke (‘hurl stick hurl cudgel’) 1379 in Poll Tax (Bodenham Wilts).
Palla : 1: Italian: from palla ‘ball’ used as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of cannon balls or as a nickname for a player of ball games or someone with a rotund figure.2: Italian: from Palla a short form of the personal name Pallade derived from Greek Pallas an alternate name of the goddess Athena.3: Galician: probably a nickname from palla ‘straw’.4: Hungarian: from the personal name Pál (see Pal).5: Czech Slovak and Polish: variant of Pala and in North America also an altered form of this.6: Albanian: nickname or metonymic occupational name from pallë (definite form palla) ‘battle sword’.7: Indian (Gujarat): Muslim name of unexplained etymology.8: Indian (Punjab): Sikh name probably from Punjabi pəllā ‘edge of a garment support’.
Pallone : Italian:: 1: from the personal name Palla + the augmentative suffix -one.2: from pallone the term used in central southern Italy for a tall story or boast or elsewhere for a large ball.
Pill : English (Cornwall):: 1: topographic name for someone who lived by a creek stream or broad shallow piece of water (Middle English pill(e) pell(e) and pull(e) from Old English pyll).2: possibly a descriptive nickname for a small rotund person from Middle English Old French pile ‘little ball pill’.3: possibly from a Middle English personal name Pill.
Snowball : English (Durham and Northumberland): nickname for someone with a snow‐white patch of hair or a whitish bald spot amid dark hair from Middle English snou snow ‘snow’ + ball ‘white streak bald place’. Snowbald an early variant may be evidence of the latter meaning from Middle English balled ‘bald’ though the -d may be excrescent. Compare Bald Ball 3.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
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