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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish and English (of Norman origin) : habitational name, altered by folk etymology, from any of three places in northern France called Bonneville, from Old French bonne ‘good’ + ville ‘settlement’. In the 16th and 17th centuries in England, the endings -field and -ville were confused; one branch of a family might continue using the first spelling while another chose the second.
  • This was one of the earliest Norman names to be taken in the 12th century to Ireland, where it was Gaelicized as de Buinnbhíol.

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