English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived on
the slope of a hillside or by a riverbank, from northern Middle
English banke (from Old Danish banke). The final
-s may occasionally represent a plural form, but it is most
commonly an arbitrary addition made after the main period of surname
formation, perhaps under the influence of patronymic forms with a
possessive -s.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic
Ó Bruacháin ‘descendant of Bruachán’, a byname
for a large-bellied person. The English form was chosen because of a
mistaken association of the Gaelic name with bruach ‘bank’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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