Buss

Buss is a metonymic occupational name for a cooper,[2] which itself is a surname, Cooper. Buss comes from the Old French word busse, which was brought into Middle English and means 'cask' or 'barrel',[1][2] and should not be confused with the Middle Low German word büsse meaning 'box', 'gun', or 'rifle', which led to Busse being the metonymic occupational name for box makers and gunsmiths.[3] The meaning of barrel was also occasionally used metaphorically for a rotund person (in reference to them being barrel-shaped), or even for someone who could drink the entire contents of a cask.[1][2][4][5]

Local surnames are derived from a place name where a person held land, from where they had come, or from where they actually lived, and these surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in".[6] For example, the surnames Debus and De Bussy, where the latter is usually a habitational name from several places in Normandy, France, rather than an altered spelling of Busse.[7] The Middle Ages were a time when most people were illiterate and a location’s address was a descriptive phrase that made use of a convenient landmark.[6] Buss also comes from the Old French word bus, meaning a bush or wood, and was also used for people living near a prominent bush, wood, or thicket.[5][6][8][9] The thick local dialects of the medieval period would have contributed to the change from Bush to Buss(e),[5] and may be how the wooded hill called Buss in Tübingen, Germany,[10] and the a 32-resident forest-encircled hamlet called Buss in Trentino, Italy, got their names.[11]

Some anthroponomasticians speculate that because Buss was used in Middle English for a Dutch or Flemish type of ship, a Herring buss, the surname may have been given to sailors of these ships,[2][6] in much the same way that Buss Island, a phantom island, was named after the type of ship that the alleged discoverers used.[12]

More recently, in 1860, it was reported in Patronymica Britannica and other sources that Buss was a common nickname for men named Barnabas, and the surname in some cases may be derived from that.[4][9] Buss may also be derived from the Flemish forename, Bus,[9] which has been used as a nickname by the likes of Bus Cook, Bus Griffiths, Bus Mertes, Bus Whitehead, and Bus Wilbert.

Just as the surname may in some instances have been derived from forenames, names that were traditionally surnames are occasionally used as forenames.[13] For example, the forename of Gladwin Kotelawala.

Buss has been used as a unisex forename on rare occasions,[14] similar to the male nickname Buzz. Buss has even been used interchangeably with Buzz, as with Buss Warren. Examples of Buss as a nickname include Albert "Buss" Hicks, cofounder of the Iota Phi Theta fraternity, and Thomas Knyvett’s daughter, Elizabeth, who was known as Buss. As a given name, male and female examples include, respectively, Buss Courtney, a fictional character in Pistols 'n' Petticoats, and Buss Laird, a mother who ran from an escaped bear at Elysian Grove Pleasure Park.[15]

For most of the English language's history, it lacked a comprehensive system of spelling rules, so Anglo-Saxon names typically have multiple variations, and even one person's name would have been spelt differently throughout their lifetime.[1][16] For example, Johann Bussemacher signed his name as "Jans. Busse", "Jo Buss", and other names throughout his life.[17]

A common variant of Buss is Busse, but other variants or related names include Bušs, Búss, Bus, Busch, Buse, Beuss, Beusse, Beus, Bass, Boss and others.[1][5][9][16][18][19] Some languages using the Latin script use orthographic transcription for all foreign names, which causes some of these variants and, for example, George Walker Bush is written Džordžs Volkers Bušs in Latvian and Corc Uoker Buş in Azerbaijani.

The fluidity of spelling is heightened for people who lived in different countries; for example, the Polish village Busewo is known as Buß is German. For the surname, Germans more typically replace the double S with an Eszett (ß) to become Buß, as used by Franz Josef Ritter von Buß of Baden, for example, and this might change the pronunciation for some with the name. For example, the use of ß distinguishes the German words Buße (IPA: [ˈbuːsə], penance) and Busse (IPA: [ˈbʊsə], buses) as there is a long vowel before ß and a short vowel before ss.[20] Other Germans, however, spell their surname like that of Johann Christoff Büss, which is pronounced the same as the Danish variant of the name used by Eva Louise Buus, Jacob Buus, and Jacques Buus.[2] Further, there were Norsemen and Norsewomen who were called Buss and Bussa respectively.[4]

Interestingly, the surname variant Buse is a homonym for a Turkish feminine given name meaning kiss, just as Buss is a homonym for the English noun and verb buss, meaning kiss.

The German coat of arms of the Buss family[6][18]

Coats of arms came into being in order to recognise heavily armoured men in battle, and the development of these accompanied the development of hereditary surnames.[6] The most popular Buss coat of arms are those for the English and the German branches of the family, both pictured, although variant names such as Bus and Busse have their own coats of arms.[21][22]

Johannes Rietstap produced his Armorial Général, which contains blazons of the coats of arms of more than 130,000 European families, including many for the Bus surname.[21] The German family crest is provided as from Rietstap Armorial General in Halbert's Registry of Busses, a scam genealogical book, but is disputed by a Buss family ancestral researcher and descendent of Robert William Buss.[23]

A Buss coat of arms was granted in Lincoln, with the blazon of a silver field charged with three black bars, and a crest of a sea wolf.[5] Other family crests are known to depict a buss ship.[23]

The German surname Buss was first found in Baden, where the family came from humble beginnings, but increased their social standing over multiple generations.[18]

The English surname was first found in Norfolk, England, where a Buss family held a family seat.[1] The byname appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where a Siward Buss and a John and Richard Buss are recorded at Brasted in Kent, in the South East of England, showing that the name has existed in this form since the late 11 Century, at the latest.[2][6] Other early records of the name in use, in all its variations, include Matilda Bus, who was documented in County Oxford in 1373, and Adam Busse, who was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379.[6]

The Buss family name is historically concentrated in the South East of England, and in 1891 there were 311 Buss families living in Kent, 192 in Sussex, 171 in London, 66 in Surrey, and 53 in Essex, comprising in total over 75% of all Buss families living in the UK at the time.[2] To this day, the Buss surname in the UK remains concentrated in the South East of England.[16][24]

The United States now hosts the most Busses in the world, after thousands of English families travelled to the New World in the 17th and 18th Centuries in search of a better life.[1][9] Early examples of such settlers include William Buss, who arrived in New England in 1640, and John Buss, who arrived in New Hampshire in 1678.[1][25] Buss is now the 3,865th most popular surname in the United States with 9,177 people using the surname according to the 2010 census, 95.65% of whom identify as being of the white race.[26]

It is estimated that Buss is the 19,350th most common surname in the world, with approximately 28,390 people using it.[9] Although the United States hosts the most Busses, the highest density of Busses is in Latvia, with one Buss in every 4,076 Latvian people.[9]

In Canada in 1921, 44% men with the Buss surname were farmers, 35% were labourers, and 5% were clerks.[2] Buss women are now closely associated with teaching due to the achievements of Frances Buss, the first person ever to use the title Headmistress.[27] In 1921, 67% of Canadian women with the Buss surname were teachers, and the remaining 34% were farmers.[2]

Every decade from 1841 to 1911, Busses in England were highly likely to work as labourers, farmers, servants, and other working class jobs, although from 1851 to 1891, the most common profession was that of a scholar, and for the decade beginning in 1911 it was that of a school teacher.[16] By 1939, 10% of men with the Buss surname were general labourers, 8% were farmworkers, 7% were gardeners, and 6% were bricklayers.[2] Women, by contrast, typically did not work at this time as rising household wealth led to women leaving the labour force, with 79% supporting unpaid domestic duties and a further 4% being housewives.[2]

Similarly, in the United States in 1940, 27% of men were farmers, 15% were labourers, 4% were salesmen, and 4% were truck drivers.[2] Of women, 12% were housewives, 11% were housekeepers, 7% were stenographers, and 6% were maids.[2] Because people bearing the Buss name typically performed manual labour, their life expectancy of 36 was much lower than that of the general population, which was 42.[2] This gap increased after the United States entered World War II, with life expectancies of 26 and 42 respectively.[2] In the present day, people bearing the Buss name have a life expectancy higher than average due to a higher social status that leads them to earn 3.76% more than the national average.[2][9]