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Surname Etymology and Meaning of BEAN

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English: metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of beans, from Old English bean ‘beans’ (a collective singular). Occasionally it may have been applied as a nickname for a someone considered of little importance.
2. English: nickname for a pleasant person, from Middle English bene ‘friendly’, ‘amiable’ (of unknown origin; there is apparently no connection with Bain or Bon).
3. Scottish: Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Beathán, a diminutive of beatha ‘life’.
4. Translation of German Bohne, or an altered spelling of Biehn. See also Bihn.
5. Mistranslation of French Lefevre. As the vocabulary word fèvre ‘smith’ was replaced by forgeron, the meaning of the old word became opaque, and the surname was reinterpreted as if it were La fève, from fève ‘(fava) bean’. Lefevre is the most common name in French Canada; great numbers of them migrated to the US, where many adopted the name Bean, in the belief that it was a translation of Lefèvre. See also Lafave.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)