Blount
A surname for someone who was fair-haired or light-complexioned, from an old French word meaning “blond.”
The #1,803 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,532 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Blount comes from Anglo-Norman French blond, meaning fair-haired or light-complexioned. It began as a nickname for a person with pale hair or skin, and in medieval records it appears in forms such as le Blound and le Blund. Related spellings like Blunt and Blundell show the same root, though Blundell may have developed as a diminutive form.
History
The name is well attested in medieval England, especially after the Norman Conquest, and several unrelated families could have acquired it independently as a descriptive nickname. Some later writers linked the noble Blount family to continental noble lines, but the basic surname meaning is simpler and more secure: “the blond” or fair-haired one. Blunt is generally treated as a spelling variant of Blount.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some medieval documents spell the name with the article, as in le Blound, showing that it started life as a plain nickname rather than a hereditary family name.
From the historical record
“devotees to the Virgin Mary. BLOUNT. French hlond, fair-haired, light-complexioned. Tlie great baronial house of Blount, lords Moimtjoy, deduced themselves from William, son of Blound, earl of Guisnes, one of the companions of the Conqueror, who was traditionally de- rived from the Bimdi of Italy and the Flavii of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Blount
- James Blunt (b. 1974)
- Sun Ra (1914–1993)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.