Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German : topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, Middle High German bach ‘stream’. This surname is established throughout central Europe and in Scandinavia, not just in Germany.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Bach ‘stream’, ‘creek’.
  • English : topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, Middle English bache.
  • Welsh : distinguishing epithet from Welsh bach ‘little’, ‘small’.
  • Norwegian : Americanized spelling of the topographic name Bakk(e) ‘hillside’ (see Bakke).
  • Polish, Czech, and Slovak : from the personal name Bach, a pet form of Bartomolaeus (Polish Bartłomiej, Czech Bartoloměj, Slovak Bartolomej (see Bartholomew) or possibly in some cases of Baltazar or Sebastian).