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The bishop Surname

bishop Name Meaning and History

English: from Middle English biscop, Old English bisc(e)op ‘bishop’, which comes via Latin from Greek episkopos ‘overseer’. The Greek word was adopted early in the Christian era as a title for an overseer of a local community of Christians, and has yielded cognates in every European language: French évêque, Italian vescovo, Spanish obispo, Russian yepiskop, German Bischof, etc. The English surname has probably absorbed at least some of these continental European cognates. The word came to be applied as a surname for a variety of reasons, among them service in the household of a bishop, supposed resemblance in bearing or appearance to a bishop, and selection as the ‘boy bishop’ on St. Nicholas’s Day.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The bishop name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the bishop family name as far back in history as possible.

bishop Family Facts

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Distribution of bishop Families in the US in 1920
Number of bishop families
 687-1372
 230-686		 1-229
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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Bishop message board


Threads: 2312 - Messages: 4818
ThreadAuthorReplies
Charles Bishop 1810ish from Kent, England Sherree163 5
James Taylor Bishop/James Victor Bishop AimeeClark63 0
BISHOP Ray 1888 1955 t42IOOF_DenCoTX 0
BISHOP Ann 1888 1978 t42IOOF_DenCoTX 0
Charlotte (?) b. 1861 & Dan Bishop b.1850 of Choctaw County, Alabama jamesscot21 1
Bishop Family from Germany imogenepark 2
Davis Oneal Bishop Michael or Sharon Bishop of TX 1
Death of Mrs. Olive Whiting Bishop in Japan davwayell 0
BISHOPs in PENNSYLVANIA Amygish123 1
Bishop Family in michigan KLoyd41 0
Viewing 1-10 of 2312 |  Go to the full board

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