Bach
A surname of German origin meaning “brook” or “stream,” sometimes also appearing in place-based English surnames tied to a brook or sandy brook.
The #2,986 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,731 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In German, Bach means “brook” or “stream,” from Middle High German and Old High German forms of the same word. It is also related to English place-names and surnames built on the same element, where it can point to someone living by a brook or to a place-name containing the word. In English usage, some Bachs may therefore be locational rather than directly borrowed from German.
History
The surname is common in German-speaking areas and is especially familiar through the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. In England, related forms and place-names such as Sandbach show the same old brook element in compound names, though those are not necessarily the same surname line. In modern Anglophone usage, Bach is also found as an immigrant surname carried from German-speaking families.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name appears in several English place-names, where -bach or -beck can mean a brook or stream.
From the historical record
“BACH (Ger.) Brook [M.H.Ger.bach, O.H.Ger. bah(h] Eng. Bach(e, i Batch, and lA.-Scfeind. Beck. BARRAUD (Fr.) see under Barpat(t' in Diet. BAUER (Ger.) Peasant, Husbandman [M.H.Ger. gebure, O.H.Ger. giburo^ Eng. Bower^. BAUM (Ger.) Tree [M.H.Ger. O.H.Ger. 6o«»i]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Bach
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- Richard Bach (b. 1936)
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.