Bailey (surname)

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Bailey is an English or Scottish surname. It comes from the word bailiff, from the Anglo-Norman bailli, the official who administers the law. The name was first recorded in Northumberland. Some say it was changed from Balliol because of the disliked Scottish king John Balliol (d. 1314), but there’s no solid evidence for this. The earliest spellings are Baillie or Bailli, from the early 1300s. Another idea is that the name comes from a place in Normandy called Bailleul-En-Vimeu. Variant forms include Baily, Baillie, and Bailie.