Origin and popularity of the name BALE

Origin

Bale : 1: English: topographic name for someone who lived by the outer wall of a castle Middle English bailli baile from Old French bail(le) ‘enclosure’ (see Bailey 3).2: Breton (Balé): variant of Balay.3: French: unexplained.4: Americanized form of German Boehl or of some other similar (like-sounding) surname.

Bala : 1: Indian (Gujarat and Mumbai): Parsi name probably from Persian bālā ‘high exalted’.2: Indian (southern states): variant of Balan among speakers of Tamil and Malayalam who have migrated away from their home state. — Note: Since South Indians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames this name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to US.3: Polish: from a shortened form of the personal name Baltazar.4: Hungarian: from a pet form of the personal name Balázs a vernacular form of Blasius.5: Albanian: from the personal name Balë (definite form Bala) which could be ultimately derived from a South Slavic name beginning with Bal- (see Balic 2) or from Albanian balë ‘whitish having a white spot on the face or muzzle’ (compare 6).6: Albanian: nickname from balë (definite form bala) a term denoting a ‘(domestic animal with a) white spot on forehead or body’ or a ‘badger’.

Bally : 1: French and Swiss French: variant of Bailly. This surname is also found in Germany.2: English: perhaps a variant of Bailey.3: English: habitational name from Bale in Norfolk which was originally Old English batha-lēah from Old English bæth ‘bath a bathing-place’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.

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’.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 11,635 individuals with the name BALE on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name BALE