Explore the Family Name Boniface

The meaning of Boniface

1. English (Sussex) and French: from the personal name Boniface (from Latin Bonifatius, a compound of bonum ‘good’ + fatum ‘fate, destiny’; see also Bonifacio). Bonifatius was the name of the Roman military governor of North Africa in 422–32, who was a friend of Saint Augustine. It was also borne by various early Christian saints and was adopted by nine popes. One of the noted early Christian saints of this name (c.675–754) was born in Devon and martyred in Friesland after evangelical work among ancient Germanic tribes; he is one of the Ice Saints (see Pankratz). In Latin the name was given chiefly to ecclesiastics, rarely to men of the lower orders, and Boniface was never very popular in England. In the Isle of Wight, its use was possibly encouraged by a cult of Saint Boniface at Bonchurch. 2. English: perhaps sometimes also a nickname from Anglo-Norman French bon enfas ‘good child’, with enfas as occasional nominative case for enfant, understood by clerks as if the Christian saint’s name Boniface (see 1 above). Compare Goodchild.

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