This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Baldwin,' from the nick. Bald. This was popularly Ball. The large number of Balls in the London Directory is accounted for by the great favour in which the name was held, and the constant influx from the Low Countries, where for a time it ruled supreme. The 'd' in some cases might be dropped later on, on account of its suggesting baldness. We find Balcock in the Hundred Rolls, -cock being the suffix usually appended to the nick, of fontal names (v. Balcock). (a) Nick, 'the bald'; v. Ballard. The representatives of this sobriquet have also dropped the final 'd' to hide the truth. Amongst very many instances occur:

Custance Balde, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard Bald, Oxfordshire, ibid.

John Balle, Norfolk, ibid.

Albred Balle, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

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

Isabella Balle, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johannes Balde-man, i.e. John, the servant of Balde: ibid.

From either (1) or (a) or both came a pet name given to various animals. Ball is mentioned as the name of a horse in Chaucer and Tusser, of a sheep in the Promptorium, and of a dog in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII (Halliwell).

'Item, the 14th day (May, 1530) paied to one in rewarde for bringing home Ball the Kinges dog that was loste in the forrest of Waltham 5s.': Privy Purse Expenses, Henry VIII.Stolen from Fore bears

'Balle, schepys name': Promptorium Parvulorum.

(3) Local, 'at the Ball,' a signname; compare Bell, Roebuck.

John atte Balle, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Henry atte Balle, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

This sign-name has existed for centuries.

A name of uncertain origin. It may be from Baell, an Old English personal name, which, however,, is only known from its existence in place name compounds. There was also an ON. Balle. (2) It may be a development from the word 'bold,' (3) a form of Bald, (4) a diminutive of Baldwin, etc.

(Teutonic) a diminutive form of Baldwin, q.v. (Anglo-Celt.) Bald. [Middle English balled, bald(e; Celt. bal(l, a (white) spot] (Anglo-French-Latin) With Bay-Coloured or Chestnut Hair. [Middle English Old French balle, Latin *badiolett-us, a diminutive from Latin badi-us, nut- brown: cp. French baill-et (used of horses), light red] Richard Bald.—Hundred Rolls John Baile. do.

The name Ball was applied to various animals: v. Halliwell’s Dict. (Anglo-French-Teut.) a name derived from the trade-sign of a Ball. [Middle English bal, balle, French balle, O.H.Ger. ballo] John atte Balle, A.D. 1327.—Kirby’s Quest.

(1) “Bald” in Old English; also (2) A round hill.

(English) Descendant of Baldwin (bold, friend); dweller at the sign of the ball; the bald-headed man.

A nickname of Baldwin. A West of England provincialism for laid.

(Cornish-British and Gaelic.) Bal, a mine, the top of a hill, the top.

Ball. —Confined to the west side of England, being at present most numerous in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. This surname must be distinguished in its distribution from Balls, which is restricted to the opposite or east side of England, in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. The idea that these names originated from bald - headed ancestors is, I think, absurd. Camden, in his remarks on surnames, written some 300 years ago, informs us that Baul and Bald were then nicknames or nursenames for Baldwin, and it was evidently from this source that Mr. Lower borrowed the suggestion that Ball was a nickname of Baldwin (a Norman personal name occurring in Domesday, and frequent as a family name in the thirteenth century). This explanation is supported in a singular manner by the distribution of Baldwin at the present day. This Norman name includes in its distribution the areas where Ball and Balls are now most frequent. We learn from the Hundred Rolls that even in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Ball, Balls, and Baldwin were for the most part characteristic of the eastern part of England; Balle in Hunts, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk; Balls in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, and Kent; Baldwin in Cambridgeshire, Hunts, and Oxfordshire. It is remarkable that after the lapse of six centuries Balls remains doggedly in the same part of England, whilst Ball and Baldwin seem to have extended their areas westward. In Norfolk three centuries ago Balls was sometimes spelt Balles or Ballis (Blomefield's "Norfolk").

The Devonshire Balls now occur mostly in the Bridestow district. The Balles of Higher Harcombe, Chudleigh, where they resided up to the 17th century, were amongst the most ancient and influential families of the district: from them sprang the Balles of Mamhead and Ashcombe, several of whom were buried in Ashcombe churchyard in the 17th and 18th centuries (Jones' "Chudleigh").