English: habitational name from any of various places, the
chief of which are in Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Shropshire,
Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and East and
South Yorkshire. The place name is from Old English beonet
‘bent grass’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.
Probably
an Americanized spelling of Swiss Bandle or Bandli or
German Bentele, all short forms of the medieval personal name
Pantaleon (see Pantaleo).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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