This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the burn,' i.e. stream; Middle English burne or bourne. More especially parishes in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Hampshire. With Burns, compare Styles, Bridges, Holmes, Brooks, &c. Possibly the patronymic 5, as in Williams, Jennings, and Jones.

John atte Bourn, Close Rolls, 17 Edward III.

John de Bourne, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

William atte Borne, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

John de la Burn', Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard de la Burne, Somerset, ibid.

John de la Burne, Essex, ibid.

Robert Atte-borne, rector of Ingworth, Norfolk, 1360: History of Norfolk.

1618. William Bourne and Agnes Johnson: Marriage Lic. (London).

1754. Married — Edward Burne and Susanna Basile: St. George, Hanover Square.

Of local origin from residence by or on a bum (ME. burna, hurne, a brook, rill). There are places named Bum in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, and the surname occurs early in the former shire. About 1280 Adam de Burne granted letters anent the land of Newton of Ayr (RMP., p. 71). Adam de Burn was a tenant in the moor of Cavers, 1303 (Bain, II, p. 386), and William de Burne was a tenant in the barony of Kilbucho, 1370 (RHM., II, p. 16), and Nicholas de Bum, cleric and notary public in the diocese of Glasgow is in record, 1397 (LSC., 111). William Burne, John Burne, and Thomas Burne were repledged to liberty of burgh of Irvine, 1460 (Irvine, I, p. 27). David Burne was a witness in Glasgow, 1497 (LCD., p. 203), Robert Burne a witness there in 1551 (Protocols, I), and Alexander Burne was a merchant in Stirling, 1649 (SBR., p. 196). Burn is an old surname in the parish of Larbert, a common one in the Stirling Commissariot Record, and several of the name are also recorded in the Peebles Commissariot Record. About a dozen persons of this name were tenants or dependents of the Abbey of Cupar-Angus, c. 1500 (Cupar-Angus).

(English) 1 Dweller at a Brook [Middle English bourn(e, burn(e; Old English burne] John de la Burne.—Hundred Rolls John atte Bourn. —Close Rolls.

2 orig. Warrior, Nobleman, Hero; later simply Man [Middle English burn(e, bern(e, a man; Old English beorn, a nobleman, &c.] According to the Anglo-Saxon genealo­gies a Beorn was a great-grandson of Woden and ancestor of the Northumbrian kings.

And who taughte hem [them] on trees To tymbre [build] so heighe, Ther neither burn ne beest May hir briddes rechen [their (young) birds reach],—Piers Plowman, 7296-9.

Than [then] spake a berne upon the bent, Of comforte that was not colde, And sayd, We have brent [burnt] Northomberlond, We have all welth in holde.—‘The Battle of Otterbourne’: Percy's Reliques.

(Scandinavian) Bear [Scandinavian biörn, a bear] Björn or Biörn is still a common Scandinavian name.

(English or Anglo-French-Teut.) Of Brown Com­plexion [metathesis of Old English brún = O.Ger. brún (and Old Norse brúnn), whence French brun, brown] Cp. Burnell, Burnett.

(Celtic) = Byrne for 0’Byrne = O’Brain, q.v.; and confused with O’Beirne, q.v.

Known variations of the same name, which however may have several origins. Sometimes it appears to be equivalent to Bourne, and in the North a small stream is still called a burn. In Saxon times, however, it seems to have been a prsonal name, whence Burneston, Burnesdale, and such-like local names. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Godric de Burnes was a great landholder in Kent, and his posterity continued in that co. for several centuries. In Scotland the name appears in early records, under such various forms as to baffle the most astute genealogist in any attempt to deduce a clear pedigree. It is, however, within recent generations that the near kinsmen of Robert Burns have varied that name to Burnes and Burness. See, for an elaborate account of this surname, "Notes on his Name and Family, by James Burnes, K.H., F.R.S." Edinburgh, 1851.

A brook.

Local. A burn, in Scotland, is a small stream, the same as Bourne. Biorn, in the Danish and Swedish, signifies a bear, figuratively, a ferocious, valiant man.