Explore the Family Name Blasius

The meaning of Blasius

German and French (Lorraine and Alsace): from the Latin personal name Blasius, from Greek Blasios, which is of uncertain origin. It is believed that this was originally a byname for someone with some defect of speech or gait, from Latin blaesus ‘stammering or lame’, Greek blaisos ‘bow-legged’. The name was borne by a Christian saint martyred in Armenia in 316, whose cult achieved wide popularity, in particular as the patron saint of cripples and carders, the latter by virtue of the fact that he was ‘carded’ to death, i.e. his flesh was scraped off in small pieces with metal combs. In North America the Latin/German form of the name has absorbed cognates from some other languages and their patronymics and other derivatives, e.g. Slovenian and Croatian Blaž (see Blaz) and its patronymics like Blažič and Blažić. Compare Blasier.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.