Belleau Family History
Belleau Name Meaning
French:: habitational name from Belleau principally the name of a place in Meurthe-et-Moselle which is recorded as early as 1047 as Bella Aqua (‘lovely water’) in Latin. It may also have been the name of unidentified or lost hamlets elsewhere in France (compare Bellew ). Belleau in Aisne is a further possible source but this placename recorded as Balliolum in 1231 has a different origin and it is not known if it gave rise to a surname or whether its re-formation as Belleau (a piece of folk etymology) took place early enough to affect the pronunciation of any such surname. nickname from Old French beu bel ‘beautiful’ (see Bel ) + the diminutive suffix -eau. Compare Ballou
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022