Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Scottish and northern Irish : topographic name for someone who lived at the top or end of a bank or hill (see Banks 1) or habitational name from a place with this origin. There are several minor places in Scotland so called, but the most likely source of the surname is one on the border between the parishes of Kilmarnock and Dreghorn in Ayrshire.