Family name origins & meanings
- German : habitational name from any of two places near Siegburg (Rhineland) or in Bavaria from any of several other minor localities in the same area. The second element is Middle Low German hof ‘court’, ‘farmstead’, ‘manor farm’ (see Hoff); the first is probably from bōne ‘bean’, a staple item of diet in the Middle Ages; alternatively, it may be from a personal name with the common Germanic element Bon, cognate with Old English Buna. Compare Bonham 2.