What We Know About the Bessie Surname

Bessie began as a French family name. Elsdon Smith's dictionary of American family names explains it as “dweller near, or in, a birch-tree grove”.

• Landscape names of this kind told neighbours where a family's house stood.
• Smith also lists Besse and Bess.

Heraldry and the Bessie name

Sharing the Bessie name is not the same as sharing a crest; arms were granted to individual families. Research your Bessie family history with a full surname report and painted coat of arms.