Bolas Family History

English:: habitational name from Bolas Magna in Shropshire or from Little Bolas in Hodnet (also in Shropshire) which is recorded as Parva Boulewas in 134.

The placenames probably have Old English wæsse ‘wet place, marsh’ as the final element; the origin of the first element is uncertain.

It may be from a diminutive of Old English boga ‘bow, arch, bend’.

Alternatively, perhaps a metonymic occupational name for a butcher from Old Norse bol-ǫx ‘poleaxe’.