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Updated January 23, 2020

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : of uncertain origin; probably from Old High German būan ‘to live at a place’, or an occupational name from Middle High German , bou ‘cultivation’ or perhaps from a short form of compounds with this element, such as Bauhofer, Baumann.
  • French : of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Beau meaning ‘handsome’, though it has also been suggested that it may derive from an obsolete personal name of Germanic origin.
  • Chinese : variant of Bao 1.
  • Chinese : variant of Bao 2.
  • Chinese : variant of Bao 3.
  • A Bau from the Angoumois region in France is recorded in Montreal in 1667; another, also known as Lebeau and Lalouette, from the Poitou region, is documented in Boucherville, Quebec, in 1672.

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