Biles
An English surname that is often treated as a variant of Ellis, though some early writers also linked it to other similar names.
The #9,870 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 94,187 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Biles is usually explained as a variant spelling of Ellis, which ultimately comes from the medieval given name Elijah, via Old French forms. In older surname scholarship, Biles is grouped with spellings like Bales, Bells, and Beles, reflecting the way surnames shifted in sound and spelling over time. Because the surviving evidence is sparse and the forms overlap, some older authorities treated it as a variant rather than a sharply separate surname.
History
Nineteenth-century surname dictionaries record Biles as an English surname form alongside several other variants of Ellis. The name appears in historical indexing and armorial references, but there is little clear evidence of a single independent origin separate from the Ellis family of spellings. In modern usage it survives as a relatively uncommon surname, especially in English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older onomastic works list Biles in the same cluster as several other surname spellings that all seem to circle back to Ellis.
From the historical record
“which it is a variant. Bales, Biles, Bells, Beles.— Bapt. * the son of Elye' ; O.F. for English Ellis. The genitive or patronymic form would be Elyes, thus differing slightly from the English Ellis. But v. Ellis, where”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)Notable people named Biles
- Simone Biles (b. 1997)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.