Origin and popularity of the name BARTHOLOMEW

Origin

Bartholomew : 1: English: from the Middle English personal name Bertilmew Bertelmy a borrowing of the Old French form of the Biblical personal name Bartholomew (from Latin Bartholomaeus; Hebrew ‘son of Talmai’ said to mean ‘having many furrows’ i.e. rich in land). This was an extremely popular personal name in Christian Europe with many vernacular derivatives. It derived its popularity from the apostle Saint Bartholomew (Matthew 10:3) who was among other things the patron saint of tanners vintners and butlers.2: As an Irish name it has been used as an Anglicized form of Mac Pharthaláin (see McFarlane).

Adgie : reduced form of Algeo; compare Algie. This is clear from correlations between various spellings of the names in the Lanarks parishes of Glasgow Govan and Barony reinforced in the IGI lists for Barony for example where husbands and wives named James Agie and Margaret Logine (1692) and Bartholomew Aja and Margaret Smith (1696) are probably identical with James Algea and Margarat Logan (1699) and Bartholomew Algeo and Margaret Smyth (1698).

Bartie : Scottish (Midlothian): from a pet form of the personal name Bartholomew (see Bartholomew).

Betts : 1: English: variant of Bett with excrescent -s a patronymic or metronymic from the medieval personal name Bett a short form of Bartholomew Beatrice or Elizabeth.2: Americanized form of German Betz.

Scruse : a late development of Cruse or Croose with prosthetic S-. With the bearers listed below compare Oliver Cruse 1794 in IGI (Orcheston Saint George Wilts); Bartholomew Cruse 1803 in IGI (Bedminster Somerset); Lizzie Ann Cruse 1864 in IGI (Westbourne Sussex).

Walkman : from Middle English *walkeman ‘watchman town guard’ based apparently on Middle English walk(e) ‘journey on foot’ in this context perhaps 'watchman's or town guard's circuit'. It is synonymous with Wakeman as is shown in two versions of Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville's De Proprietatibus Rerum. The manuscript version (before 1398) has ‘wakemen and wardeyns’ while de Worde's printed version (1495) has ‘walkmen and wardeyns’. A similar substitution apparently occurs in surname usage some 150 years earlier when the place of Henry Walkeman of Winkburn in the 1327 Notts subsidy roll quoted below is taken by John Wakeman in the 1332 roll. Compare also Watchman.

Wellbrook : of uncertain origin but perhaps a late variant of Walbrook. See Bartholomew Waldbrooke or Wellbrook 1759 in PROB 11.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 19,709 individuals with the name BARTHOLOMEW on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

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