A male name. Latin bonifacius ‘well-doer’, the name of a 3rd-C saint martyred at Tarsus, and adopted by a series of popes, beginning with Boniface I (418-22); it was adopted also,probably when he became a monk, by St Winfrid or Winfrith (680-755), the Apostle of the Germans. It occurs in England as a christian name from the 13th C, but did not long survive the Reformation, the latest example noted being Bonyface Tateham whose name occurs in a list of Roman recusants 1604. It became a surname and was given by Farquhar to the innkeeper in his play The Beaux' Stratagem 1707, whence it was taken into use as a general term for an innkeeper. It may be noted that the name Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight, which is sometimes stated to be an abbreviated form of Boniface church, has nothing to do with this name; it was Old English bana cerce, the first element probably being Old English bana murderer.

Bonifacius Curia Regis Rolls 1207, Hundred Rolls 1273. Bonyface Church Registers of St. Peter’s, Cornhill 1543. Boneface Register of Oxford University 1456.