Bains
Usually a locational surname, probably from a place name such as Bains in Normandy or a similar spot in England.
The #9,621 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 91,426 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken to be locational, from a place called Bains or Baines. Some older writers connected it with the French word for a bath and with the Norman place-name Bains near Bayeux, while others treated it as a local English surname from a site in Yorkshire or another nearby place. In Gaelic contexts, it was also linked by some authorities to Gaelic ban, meaning “white,” so the name may have more than one independent origin.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in several spellings, especially Bains, Baines, Baynes, and Bain. It was later established in Scotland as well, where Macbain notes Bains of Tulloch in the sixteenth century and relates some forms to Gaelic usage. Because the same spelling could arise from different roots, modern bearers may descend from English, Norman-French, or Scottish lines.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th- and early-20th-century surname writers often treated Bains as a name with mixed origins rather than a single family line.
From the historical record
“'Richard AEhton v. Ronr Bondemm and John Stelle,' 1353; Croston's edit, of Bains' Lane. 1 149. (3) Occup. 'the bond,' a house- holder, a husbandman, a boor, one under the tenure styled bondage.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances