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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : nickname from Middle English bold ‘courageous’, ‘daring’ (Old English b(e)ald, cognate with Old High German bald). In some cases it may derive from an Old English personal name (see Bald).
  • English : topographic name for someone who lived or worked at the main house in a settlement, from Old English bold, the usual West Midland and northwestern form of Old English bōðl, bōtl ‘dwelling house’, ‘hall’.
  • English : habitational name for someone from Bold in Lancashire, which is named with Old English bold ‘dwelling’, as in 2 above.
  • German : from the Germanic personal name Baldo, a short form of the various compound names with the element bald ‘bold’, notably Baldwin in the north, and Reinbold in the south.
  • Swedish : probably of German origin.

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