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Updated August 14, 2024

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Family name origins & meanings

  • English (chiefly West Country) : from Middle English bolt ‘bolt’, ‘bar’ (Old English bolt ‘arrow’). In part this may have originated as a nickname or byname for a short but powerfully built person, in part as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of bolts.
  • Danish : variant of Boldt.
  • Variant of Bold.
  • German : from a short form of the personal names Baldwin or Reinbold.

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