Bacchus
An English surname that likely began as a spelling transformation of Backhouse or Bakehouse, not a reference to the Roman god of wine.
The #9,747 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,856 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as a corruption of Backhouse or Bakehouse, a place-name style surname meaning “the house at the back” or “the bakehouse.” Older writers noted that the form Bacchus can look classical, but the family name itself is not derived from the god Bacchus. The change is mainly one of local pronunciation and spelling over time.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers treated Bacchus as an English variant that arose through dialect and record-keeping shifts from Backhouse/Bakehouse. It is especially associated with southern English examples in older scholarship, though the name is now found more widely in the English-speaking world. The attractive classical spelling probably helped it survive as a distinct-looking surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books explicitly comment that the bread-maker’s name seems to have “turned into” the wine-god’s name by accident.
From the historical record
“local. BACCHUS. Certainly not from the God of AVine, but a corruption of Bakehouse, which see. BACHELOR. See Batchelor. BACK. (Pluralized to Backs, whence Bax.) Sometimes sjTionymous with Beck, but more generally either a wharf or a ferry. Hence Backman and Backer. BACKER. The same as Backman.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom