Family name origins & meanings
- English (chiefly West Country) : from Middle English bolt ‘bolt’, ‘bar’ (Old English bolt ‘arrow’). In part this may have originated as a nickname or byname for a short but powerfully built person, in part as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of bolts.
- Danish : variant of Boldt.
- Variant of Bold.
- German : from a short form of the personal names Baldwin or Reinbold.