Bellamy
A surname from Old French meaning “fair friend,” originally used as a friendly form of address.
The #2,108 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,985 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bellamy comes from Old French belle amie or bel amy, literally “fair friend” or “beautiful friend.” In early use it could function as an affectionate or even lightly ironic nickname, much like English “good fellow.” Some later writers also linked it to place-names such as Bellême in Normandy, but the “fair friend” explanation is the better-attested traditional derivation in surname studies.
History
The name is well established in medieval English records and was carried to Britain through Norman-French influence. It appears in later spellings such as Belamy and Bellamie, and it became an ordinary hereditary surname over time. Because it sounds like a phrase of address, it has often been noted as one of the more transparent and sociable-looking French surnames in English use.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers often grouped Bellamy with names like Goodman and Fairbrother because they all began as words of greeting or praise.
From the historical record
“lars and Bellairs. B.L.G. BELLAMY. Dr. Giles regards this as a corruption of the Norman surname Belesrae; but there is ainmdance of evidence to shew that it is the old or Norman-French Ijcl- amy, "fair friend," used much m the de- preciatory way in which we now employ "good fellow." A^Hien William Rufus had scolded…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom