BULLOUGH
Bullough is an English surname whose earliest attestations date back to the twelfth century. The root of the name is generally recognised as the Old English words bula (meaning “bull”) and leah (meaning “woodland” or “clearing”), suggesting that the name originally described someone who lived near or worked within a clearing where bulls were kept.
In addition to this Old English derivation, some scholars advance a Norman influence, proposing that the name may have been adopted from a place in Normandy whose name itself is derived from the Old French words boul (“boulder”) and hoh (“hollow”). Under this theory the name would mean “hollow of the boulders”. This alternative etymology is consistent with the presence of early Bullough landowners in Yorkshire during the Middle Ages.
Documentary records provide a clear chronology for the name. The first known spelling appears in the year 1170 as Walter Bulloc, situated within the reign of King Henry II. In 1287 the name is recorded as Richard le Bollocherde in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, a designation that suggests an occupational link to herd‑minding or cattle rearing. Subsequent early survivors include Henry Bullock, who died in 1526, and who had entered Cambridge University in 1504 and was a contemporary of Erasmus. In 1635 the ship Elizabeth departed London with a crew member named Edward Bullock who later established himself in New England, making him one of the earliest Bullough settlers in America.
Over the centuries the spelling of the surname has undergone numerous variants, a common phenomenon in English surnames that reflects regional dialects and differing administrative practices. Variants recorded in church and civil registers include Bolough, Bulloughe, Bullocke, Bolloke, Bulogh, Bulogie, Bullo, Bulloch, Bulleghan, Bullement, Bwllog, Bologh, Bolle, Bolhuis, Bolger and Bool. The most frequent anglicised form is Bullock, often abbreviated to Bull, whereas the variants Bulogh and Bullo become more common in Scotland and Ireland respectively.
Geographically, the Bullough name is principally concentrated in England, with higher frequencies in Lancashire and West Yorkshire. In Scotland it is mainly found in Glasgow and along the Ayrshire coast. In the United Kingdom as a whole the surname remains most common in England and Scotland, though it occasionally appears in Wales, Surrey and Derbyshire. Across the Atlantic it is particularly frequent in the United States states of New York and New England, fields that received large numbers of British immigrants during the nineteenth century, and it is also recorded in California, Texas and Ohio, albeit less commonly. Instances of the surname also exist in former British colonies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, in addition to select European countries including Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Norway and Sweden, the latter of which have adopted localised spellings such as Bolle and Bolhuis.
Occupational associations have also been documented. The name is sometimes linked to leather manufacturing or the sale of leather goods—routes that would traditionally involve the washing and softening of animal hides with a hollow filled with stones and water. This occupational interpretation aligns with the medieval practice of utilising geographic features such as hollows and boulders for processing hides. While not all Bulloughs were necessarily engaged in these activities, the surname’s occupational potential is a recognised component of its historical record.
Today the Bullough surname persists as a recognised family name across the United Kingdom and in former British colonies, continuing a lineage that stretches back before the Norman Conquest of 1066. Its survival through centuries of linguistic change, regional migration and international settlement provides a testament to the enduring nature of surnames within British and global genealogical history.
Typical given names associated with the Bullough surname
Male
- Andrew
- Andy
- Anthony
- Chris
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Paul
- Peter
- Rae
- Richard
- Robert
- William
Female
- Ann
- Anne
- Catherine
- Christine
- Emma
- Jean
- Joan
- Linda
- Margaret
- Mary
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Bullough in...
Braille
⠃⠥⠇⠇⠕⠥⠛⠓
Morse
-.....-.-...-..---..---.....
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,217 people named Bullough in the UK. That makes it roughly the 6,368th most common surname in Britain. Around 19 in a million people in Britain are named Bullough.
Famous people named Bullough
- Edward Bullough - Aesthetician and scholar (1880 to 1934)
- Donald A. Bullough - Historian (1928 to 2002)
- Walter Bullough - Australian cricketer (1855 to 1888)
- Edward Bullough - Rugby union player (1866 to 1934)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.