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The bain Surname

bain Name Meaning and History

  1. Scottish: nickname for a fair-haired person, from Gaelic bàn ‘white’, ‘fair’. This is a common name in the Highlands, first recorded in Perth in 1324. It is also found as a reduced form of McBain.
  2. Northern English: nickname meaning ‘bone’, probably bestowed on an exceptionally tall, lean man, from Old English ban ‘bone’. In northern Middle English -a- was preserved, whereas in southern dialects (which later became standard), it was changed to -o-.
  3. Northern English: nickname for a hospitable person, from northern Middle English beyn, bayn ‘welcoming’, ‘friendly’ (Old Norse beinn ‘straight’, ‘direct’).
  4. English and French: metonymic occupational name for an attendant at a public bath house, from Middle English, Old French baine ‘bath’.
  5. French: topographic name for someone who lived by a Roman bath, from Old French baine ‘bath’ or a habitational name from a place in Ille-et-Vilaine, named with this word.
  6. Possibly an altered spelling of North German Behn.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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bain Family Facts

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Distribution of bain Families in the US in 1920
Number of bain families
 111-220
 38-110		 1-37
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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