Bean
A surname with several possible roots, including a nickname for Benjamin, a pet form of Beane, and possibly a name linked to beans or bean-growing.
The #926 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,218 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Bean has more than one plausible origin. In English and Scottish records it can be a short form of Benjamin, or a variant of Beane; some writers also linked it to the vegetable bean, by analogy with surnames based on crops or food plants. In Celtic contexts, especially in older scholarship, forms like Mac Bean were explained as 'son of Beatha' in Gaelic, though that is really a separate surname tradition rather than the usual English Bean.
History
Historical sources show Bean used in England at least by the medieval period, with spellings such as Beane and Bene. In Scotland, Bean is also explained as an abbreviation of Benjamin, while related Gaelic surnames such as MacBean have their own separate history. The name is fairly common in English-speaking countries today, especially in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century scholar compared Bean to Roman family names like Fabii, Cicerones, and Pisones, which were thought to come from crops or legumes.
From the historical record
“to^Tishii^ in Durham. BEAN. BEANE. A Scotch abbrevia- tion of Benjamin. BEANBULK. Thisname, aswellasBean- shop, Beanship, and Beanskin, baffles my etymological skill. They may possibly be connected with the vegetable, like the Ro- man familyofFabii, whose name originated in tlieir being great cultivators of the…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom