Bosco
A surname from Latinized forms meaning “of the wood,” often linked to people who lived near woodland or to names like Bois/Dubois.
The #7,399 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,641 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bosco is the Latinized form of a surname element meaning “wood” or “forest,” from Latin boscus/boscus as used in medieval records. In name forms such as de Bosco, it literally meant “of the wood,” and could refer to someone living by a wooded place or to a French name like Bois or Dubois. In English and Scottish records, it was often treated as the Latin equivalent of Wood or Atwood.
History
Medieval records in England and Scotland show many Latinized bynames such as de Bosco, including bearers in the 13th and 14th centuries. Later antiquarian writers noted that families with this form were often connected with names like Wood, Bois, Dubois, or related local place-names. The surname survives today mainly as Bosco, though in some cases it may also reflect later Italian or Romance-language usage.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books explicitly gloss de Bosco as the Latin equivalent of the English surname Wood.
From the historical record
“charter of temp., Alexander II. Nisbet. BOSCO. Probably retained from the latinization of At-Wood or Du-Bois, which was De Bosco. BOSCOAN. A corruption of Boscawen. BOSISTOW. An estate in the parish of St. Lcvan in Cornwall, which " in remote times" belonged to the family. D. Gil- bert's Cornwa]]. BOSLEY.* Bosley…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom