Beeden Family History

From either Bidon or La Ville-Bidon (Ille-et-Villaine, Brittany). The short vowel of Bidon was frequently lowered and lengthened to produce the spellings Beedon and Beeden. Stow Bedon and Kirby Bedon, Norfolk, were held by John de Bidun in 121. It is probably the principal source of the surname Beedon in E Anglia and a contributor to Bedden in the Midlands. Some bearers listed below may, however, belong at (2).

From any of various places named with Old English byden, meaning ‘vessel for liquids’ in a transferred topographic sense such as ‘tub-shaped hollow’ or ‘narrow steep valley’. These include Benna in Christow, Betham in Witheridge, and Bidna in Northam (all in Devon), Bidden in Upton Grey (Hants), and Beedon (Berks). Early surname forms with atte are more likely to be topographic, alluding not to a settlement but to a local landscape feature named with Middle English biden (western dialect) and buden, reflexes of the Old English word.

Surnames with this etymology will be pronounced /'bɪdən/ or /'bi:den/ as in (1), and some bearers listed below may alternatively belong at (1). From Baydon (Wilts) or Beadon (in Hennock, Devon), both possibly meaning ‘berry hill’ from Old English beg + dūn. Alternatively, the first element is the Old English female personal name Bēage (related to Old English bēag, Middle English bei, biʒe, bye) meaning ‘ring, bracelet, torque’.

This would explain the 1327 surname de Bigedene in East Meon (Hants) with the not uncommon Middle English substitution of -den for -don in the Wilts place-name. The 1332 example in Lustleigh (adjacent to Hennock) clearly belongs to Beadon, and the 1377 and 1381 examples of Beydon in Wilts and Surrey allude to Baydon as may do a number of examples spelled Bidon, Bydon, Byden, etc., pronounced /'baidən/ in Modern English.

For someone who lived by the hill, from Middle English bi doun (Old English, Middle English dūn meaning ‘hill’) as in the 1332 Bishop's Tawton (Devon) example. From Beeding (Sussex), recorded as æt Beadingum (about 880), Bedingges (1073), Beding (1327), and Byding (1330, 1362) in Place-Names of Sussex. The place-name denoted ‘the people of Bēada’ from an Old English personal name + the Old English plural suffix -ingas forming folk-names. In the surname, the final -ing may sometimes have been reduced to -en, but some bearers listed below may belong at other senses. See Beedham, probably a major source of the name in the E Midlands.