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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Croatian and Serbian : nickname for someone with white or very fair hair or a pale complexion, from bijel, beo ‘white’.
  • Czech (Bělán) and Slovak (Belán) : nickname from Czech bílý , Slovak biely ‘white’, or derivative of the female personal name Běla (see Belin).
  • French (Bélan) : unexplained.
  • A bearer of the name Bélan was buried in Quebec city in 1688; his origins are unknown.

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