Origin and popularity of the name BLAC

Origin

Black : 1: English and Scottish: chiefly from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’ (Old English blæc blaca) a nickname given from the earliest times to a swarthy or dark-haired man. However Middle English blac also meant ‘pale wan’ a reflex of Old English blāc ‘pale white’ with a shortened vowel. Compare Blatch and Blick. With rare exceptions it is impossible to disambiguate these antithetical senses in Middle English surnames. The same difficulty arises with Blake and Block.2: Scottish: in Gaelic-speaking areas this name was adopted as a translation of the epithet dubh ‘dark black-(haired)’ or of various other names based on Gaelic dubh ‘black’ see Duff.3: Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames directly or indirectly derived from the adjective meaning ‘black dark’ for example German and Jewish Schwarz and Slavic surnames beginning with Čern- Chern- (see Chern and Cherne) Chorn- Crn- or Czern-.4: Swedish: nickname from black ‘pale’.5: Americanized form of Danish Blak: nickname from blak ‘pale’.6: Native American: translation into English and shortening of a personal name composed of a word meaning ‘black’ such as Lakota Sioux Četaŋ Sapa ‘Black Hawk’ (see Blackhawk).

Blackborow : from any of several places named from Old English blæc ‘black’ or blāc ‘pale’ + burg ‘stronghold’ or berg ‘hill mound’ (there is often confusion between these elements) such as Blackborough (Devon Norfolk) or perhaps Blackberry in Westerleigh (Gloucs).

Blackett : English:: 1: nickname for a person with dark or fair hair from Middle English blak ‘black’ (Old English blæc) or ‘fair’ (Old English blāc) + hed heved ‘head’. See also Black.2: nickname from Middle English blak ‘black’ + hod ‘hood’.

Blacktop : 1: from Middle English blac ‘black’ + top ‘top tuft of hair head’. 2: perhaps from Blacktoft (ER Yorks) Middle English for ‘the black house-site’. There was a well-recorded medieval surname of this origin but it is uncertain whether this has become Blacktop or has died out.

Blake : 1: English and Scottish (England and central Scotland): variant of Black 1 meaning ‘swarthy’ or ‘dark-haired’ from a byform of the Old English adjective blæc blac ‘black’ with change of vowel length.2: English: nickname from Middle English blak(e) (Old English blāc) ‘wan pale white fair’. In Middle English the two words blac and blāc with opposite meanings fell together as Middle English blake. In the absence of independent evidence as to whether the person referred to was dark or fair it is now impossible to tell which sense was originally meant.3: English (Norfolk): nickname from Middle English bleik blaik> blek(e) (Old Norse bleikr) ‘pale or sallow’ (in complexion).4: Irish: Anglicized form of Ó Bláthmhaic ‘descendant of Bláthmhac’ a personal name from bláth ‘flower blossom’ (also meaning ‘fame or prosperity’) + mac ‘son’. In some instances however the Irish name is derived from Old English blæc ‘dark swarthy’ as in 1 above. Many bearers are descended from Richard Caddell nicknamed le blac sheriff of Connacht in the early 14th century. The English surname has been Gaelicized as de Bláca.

Block : 1: German and Dutch: from Middle High German bloch Middle Dutch bloc ‘block (of wood)’ in any of several senses for example a topographic sense denoting a fenced field a nickname for a large lumpish man or a metonymic occupational name for a shoemaker or a milliner.2: English (mainly Suffolk): descriptive nickname from Middle English blok bloke usually meaning either ‘pale wan pallid’ (Old English blāc) but perhaps sometimes ‘black’ (of hair or appearance). The name could be interchangeable with the equally ambiguous Black and Blake. Alternatively it may be an nickname derived from Middle English blok(ke) bloke ‘block (of wood)’ perhaps for someone thought to be stupid or someone who made or used wooden blocks. Compare Blocker and 1 above.3: Americanized form of Jewish (Ashkenazic) Bloch.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 255 individuals with the name BLAC on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

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