Bush
A mostly topographic surname for someone who lived by a bush, thicket, or wooded place.
The #372 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,675 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bush comes from the Old English and Middle English word for a bush, thicket, or small wooded growth. In older usage, the word could also refer more broadly to a wood or grove, not just a single shrub. As a surname, it usually began as a topographic name for someone who lived near such a place; medieval spellings like Atte-Busche show that sense clearly.
History
The name is well established in England and was later carried to North America and other English-speaking regions. Some older surname books also connect related forms such as Busk and Bysh to the same root. The survival of the broader older sense in American and Australian English is sometimes noted in historical dictionaries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older writers pointed out that Bush and the surname Cutbush are part of the same naming family: both could describe someone connected with a wooded or bushy place.
From the historical record
“BUSBY. A village in co. Renfrew. BUSH. See Bysh. This word, now applied to a low thick tree, formerly meant a whole wood or grove (sylva, nemus), and this proper sense is retained in America and Australia. Atte-Busche therefore, in me- dieval writings, is equivalent to De Bosco, while the singular name Cutbush is…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom