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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from the French Channel port of Boulogne, recorded in Latin sources both as Gessoriacum and as Bononia. The latter name is clearly the source of the modern place name. It is ostensibly a derivative of Latin bonus ‘good’ (compare Bolognese), but may in fact come from a Gaulish element bona ‘foundation’. Boulogne has long been a major trading port between England and France.

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