Batchelor
A surname from Middle English bachelor, originally meaning a young knight or an unmarried man, later used as a common byname.
The #3,762 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,786 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Batchelor is a spelling variant of Bachelor, from Middle English bachelor, borrowed through Old French bacheler/bachelor. In medieval use, the word could mean a young man, a junior knight, or a man below the rank of a full knight; only later did it come to mean an unmarried man. The surname was therefore probably first applied as a descriptive nickname rather than as a hereditary family name with any single fixed meaning.
History
English surname dictionaries regularly treat Batchelor as a variant of Bachelor, and the spelling with -tch- is well established in English records. The name also appears in Manx records, where Moore notes it among surnames in the Isle of Man. In English-speaking countries the surname spread in several parallel spellings, including Bachelor, Batchelder, and Batcheller.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The medieval sense of bachelor was not just “unmarried man”: it could also refer to a young or junior knight.
From the historical record
“a well-known family in Kirk Alichael. ' Wm. Gell, BATCHELOR FROM CaSTLETOWN,' 'ThO. StEVEN, SON OF Will of the Gate,' ' Tho. McYlleriah, son to h m 124 Wanx Sxtrnamcs. AT BALLAQUAiLE,'were all, doubtless, satisfactory defini- tions at the time. In the older register books, when a stranger was buried, we generall}'…”
— The Surnames & Place-Names of the Isle of Man