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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : nickname for someone who was in the habit of going about his business unshod, from Old English bær ‘bare’, ‘naked’ + fōt ‘foot’. It may have referred to a peasant unable to afford even the simplest type of footwear, or to someone who went barefoot as a religious penance.
  • In some instances, probably a translation of German Barfuss, the northern form Barfoth, or the Danish cognate Barfo(e)d.

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