Bushman
A surname that likely began as a descriptive name for someone who lived or worked in the bushes or remote wild country.
The #6,771 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,985 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bushman is transparently formed from English "bush" plus "man." In surname use, this usually points to a person associated with bushes, scrubland, or a wooded, rural place, rather than to the later modern sense of a hunter-gatherer or "man of the bush." The name may also have been applied as a descriptive nickname for someone who lived in a rough or secluded area.
History
The surname is best understood within the broad English pattern of landscape-based names. It is not especially common, and the few historical references available here do not provide a detailed early pedigree for the name. In English-speaking countries, such surnames often arose independently in more than one place.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it is a straightforward compound of common English words, Bushman could easily have formed independently in several different places.
From the historical record
“Frankish, Rhemish, Rhenish, Romish, - Moor, Blackmoor, Berber, Barbarian, Algerine, Tuarek, Foulis (Foulahs?), Kaftir, Boer, Bushman, Bant^, Fiji, - Islander. Cuban, Brazillian, Chilian, Argentine, American, Merican, Melican, - Northerman, Easterman, Westerman, Southerman,”
— A Grammar of American Surnames