Family name origins & meanings
- English : occupational name for a scribe or copyist, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Old French bulle ‘letter’, ‘document’.
- English (of Norman origin) : habitational name from a place in Normandy that has not been identified. If it is Bouillé, and so identical with Bulley 1, the -er(s) may have arisen by analogy with other Norman place names in -ière(s) (see for example Villers).
- German : nickname for a man with a loud voice, from an agent derivative of Middle High German bullen ‘to roar’ (of imitative origin).