ENGLISH ORIGINS

First found in Cheshire, where they held a family seat from ancient times, long before the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: George Ball who settled in St. Christopher in 1635; Goodwife Ball settled in Virginia in 1623; Allen Ball settled in New Haven Conn. in 1630; Eliza Ball settled in Virginia in 1651.

The ancient history of the name BALL dates back to the days of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It was a name given to a person who was bald, deriving its origin from the Old English word 'Bealla', which meant bald. The surname may also refer to someone who had a rotund or stocky stature.

Spelling variations include: Ball, Balle, Balls, Balders and others.

Coat of Arms:
A silver shield with a black lion rampant holding a fireball, proper.

Crest:
A hand and arm in mail, grasping a fireball.

Motto: Fulcrum dignitatis virtus.

Motto Translated: Virtue is the support of dignity

The BALL name comes from that Medieval landscape of northwestern France known as Brittany. The name BALL was originally derived from the family having lived in Brittany, where this distinguished family was established from ancient times.

Spelling variations include: Bal, Balle, Ball, Balard, Balart, Baland, Balland, Balet, Ballet, Ballot, Balot, Ballon, Balon, Ballou and many more.

First found in Brittany, where this distinguished family was established from ancient times.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Thomas Bal, who was established in Barbados in 1678. Louis Balard, also known as Latour, son of Pierre and Sébastienne Pilin, diocese d'Ausion, who died in 1732 in Quebec.

Name: Ball, Peter
Birth - Death: d1675
Source Citation:

    * The Dictionary of National Biography. The Concise Dictionary. Part 1, From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Contains abstracts of the biographies found in The Dictionary of National Biography (21 volumes, New York: Macmillan Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1908). (DcNaB)

Name: Ball, Thomas
Birth - Death: 1590-1659
Source Citation:

    * Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature. British and American authors living and deceased from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Three volumes. By S. Austin Allibone. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1858-1871. (Alli)
    * The Dictionary of National Biography. The Concise Dictionary. Part 1, From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Contains abstracts of the biographies found in The Dictionary of National Biography (21 volumes, New York: Macmillan Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1908). (DcNaB)
* The Dictionary of National Biography. The Concise Dictionary. Part 1, From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Contains abstracts of the biographies found in The Dictionary of National Biography (21 volumes, New York: Macmillan Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1908). Corrigenda begins on page 1457. (DcNaB C)

    * The Dictionary of National Biography. The Concise Dictionary. Part 1, From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Contains abstracts of the biographies found in The Dictionary of National Biography (21 volumes, New York: Macmillan Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1908). (DcNaB)

Ball Surname meaning:

   1. English: nickname for a short, fat person, from Middle English bal(le) ‘ball’ (Old English ball, Old Norse b{o,}llr).
   2. English: topographic name for someone who lived on or by a knoll or rounded hill, from the same Middle English word, bal(le), used in this sense.
   3. English: from the Old Norse personal name Balle, derived either from ballr ‘dangerous’ or b{o,}llr ‘ball’.
   4. South German: from Middle High German bal ‘ball’, possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for a juggler, or a habitational name from a place so named in the Rhine area.
   5. Dutch and German: short form of any of various Germanic personal names formed with the element bald (see Bald).