[Surname] Re: Palin; Bayless
by Jim Young (guest)
11/9/2007, 6:34 AM
Bayless, English surname, originating in the Old French Baillis, "bailiff". Another French form, Bailli, gives us Bailey and its variants.
I should add, to cover all bases, that there is a Jewish surname, Beilis, whose spelling could have changed in an English-speaking country. That comes from the name of a female ancestor, Beile, which derives from the Russian word for "white".