Bales
Most likely a variant spelling of Bale, with the final -s marking a plural or family form.
The #2,704 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,169 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Bales is generally taken as a plural or patronymic-looking form of Bale. In older English naming practice, names ending in -s often developed as family forms or as variants of a simpler base name. Here the base Bale is usually explained as a place-name surname, from a parish in Norfolk.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers treated Bales mainly as a spelling variant of Bale rather than a separate origin. The name appears in English records as a relatively minor surname form and has survived in that broader Bale/Bales family of spellings. It is not among the most common English surnames, but it has remained established in Britain and later in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly gloss Bales as a pluralization of Bale.
From the historical record
“BALE. A parish in co. Norfolk. BALES. A pluralization of Bale. BALFOUR. A castle and fief in Fife- shire of which county the chiefs were here- ditary sheriffs. The family sprang from Siward, a Northumld-ian, who settled in Scotland temp. Duncan I. BALGUY. This singular name borne by an ancient Peak family is…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom