Bundy
Likely an English surname of uncertain origin, perhaps a diminutive or pet form related to an older personal name such as Bund or Bundig.
The #2,971 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,590 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The old surname evidence is not entirely clear, but 19th-century writers usually treated Bundy as a name formed from an earlier personal name, rather than from a place or occupation. Bardsley suggests a baptismal sense, roughly “the son of Bund,” and also links it tentatively with an older form such as Bundig. The element Bund- may go back to an early Germanic personal name; the exact source is uncertain, and the spelling has varied over time.
History
The surname is found in medieval English records and later appears in several English counties, with Bardsley noting Yorkshire and other scattered examples. The name also turns up in later American records, reflecting normal English surname migration to North America. Because the early forms are few and ambiguous, later scholars treated the etymology cautiously.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One nineteenth-century authority even wondered whether Bundy might preserve memory of an early Anglo-Saxon personal name, showing how often medieval surnames were reinterpreted later on.
From the historical record
“MDB. Ico. Soma), 3 ; London, I. Bund, Bundy. — Bapt. ' the son of Bund.' The masculine Bundus is found in Domesday in COS. Yorl;, Essex, and Norfolk.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances