Bye
Usually a locational surname from a place-name meaning “dwelling” or “village,” though it may also reflect an old personal name in some cases.
The #9,496 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,197 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Bye is commonly explained as a locational name from Middle English by or bie, meaning a dwelling, hamlet, or village. In that sense it could identify someone who lived “at the by” or came from a small settlement so named. Some early scholars also thought the name might sometimes go back to a personal name or a Norman place-name, so the origin is not uniform in every family line.
History
The name is recorded in medieval and later English sources, especially in southern counties such as Somerset and Dorset. Nineteenth-century surname scholars treated it mainly as a local name, but also noted occasional evidence that it may have been used as a personal name. Today it remains a relatively uncommon English surname, with bearers in Britain and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries connect Bye with the everyday medieval word for a small settlement, so the name may once have meant something as simple as “the person from the village.”
From the historical record
“tion ; or it may be the De Bjais of theH.R. BYE. See by. But It seems also to have been a personal name, as Fil.' Bye occurs in H.R. BYERS. The chateau of Biars in the canton of Isigni, La Manche, Normand}', had lords of its own name, temp. Conq. De Gerville. Mem. Soc. Ant. Norm. 1825, BYFIELD. A parish in co.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom