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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from Old French bas(se) ‘low’, ‘short’ (Latin bassus ‘thickset’; see Basso), either a descriptive nickname for a short person or a status name meaning ‘of humble origin’, not necessarily with derogatory connotations.
  • English : in some instances, from Middle English bace ‘bass’ (the fish), hence a nickname for a person supposedly resembling this fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a fish seller or fisherman.
  • Scottish : habitational name from a place in Aberdeenshire, of uncertain origin.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a maker or player of bass viols, from Polish, Ukrainian, and Yiddish bas ‘bass viol’.
  • German : see Basse.

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