8,336 Global BEALE Family Members

BEALE Family History

This interesting surname is of Norman and Anglo-Saxon origin, has two possible sources, the first of which is from a Norman nickname for a handsome man, in Old French "bel" or "bele". The word was also used as a personal name for women, meaning "fair, beautiful", and the surname could therefore be derived from either. In the plural forms, Beals or Beales, the name is patronymic, and means "son of Bel". The second possible origin for the modern surname is locational, from either of the two places called Beal in Northumberland and in West Yorkshire. The former was first recorded as "Behil", and means "bee-hill", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "beo-hyll", the latter, first recorded as "Begale" in the Domesday Book of 1086, means "land by the bends (of the River Aire)", from the Olde English "beag-halh"...