Bone
A surname with several possible roots, including a nickname for “the good man” and, less certainly, a place-name or physical-description origin.
The #3,350 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,876 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The most straightforward explanation in the older surname books is from Old French le bon, meaning “the good,” used as a nickname and adopted into English forms like Bone. Some writers also linked it to native Germanic words for “bone” or “leg,” or to nicknames based on bodily shape, but those explanations are less secure. Lower also treated Bone as a probable corruption of another surname, Bohun, showing that the history is not always simple or singular.
History
Medieval records show several early bearers such as Durand le Bon and Roger Bone, suggesting that the name was already established in England by the 13th century. In later centuries the surname appears in forms like Bone and Bones, and some sources treated Bones as a variant or corruption of Bone. Because the evidence points in more than one direction, the surname is usually best treated as having mixed or uncertain origins rather than one fixed source.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley explicitly noted medieval examples of Bone both with and without the French article le, which is one clue that it began as a nickname rather than a purely hereditary family name.
From the historical record
“homo." BONE. A probable corruption of Bo- hun. See Bowne. BONES. A corruption of Bone. BOO 34”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom