Bail
A name that may come from an official title or a place-name, and is also found in forms linked to the Norman surname Baillol/Baillie.
The #2,421 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 20,642 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is probably connected with Old French and Middle English words for a bailiff or steward, from forms like Old French bailli and later English bail. In some families it may also be a shortened or altered form related to Norman place-names or surnames such as Baillol/Bailliol. Because the historical evidence is thin and mixed, the exact derivation of Bail is not certain.
History
The name appears sporadically in medieval and later records, but the excerpts do not provide a single clear line of descent. Nineteenth-century surname writers often grouped it with occupational names connected to officials and law-court or manorial administration, while also noting possible Norman connections in some lines. In modern use it remains uncommon in the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The word bail in English still preserves the same general administrative and legal sense that surname scholars often used when tracing this family name.
From the historical record
“taken as a type of these :— Judge. What bail ? What sureties ? - Davy. Her cozen ap Rice, ap Evan, ap Morice, ap Morgan, ap Lluellyn, ap Madoc, ap Meredith, ap Griffin, ap Davis, ap Owen, ap Shinkin [Jenkin] Jones.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)