Belgrave Family History
Belgrave Name Meaning
English: habitational name from a place in Leicestershire recorded in Domesday Book as Merdegrave. The original name derived from Old English mearth ‘marten’ + grāf ‘grove’ but after the Norman Conquest the first element was taken to be Old French merde ‘dung filth’ and changed to Old French beu bel ‘fair lovely’ to remove the unpleasant association. A mid 12th-century writer refers to the place as ‘Merthegrave nunc (now) Belegrava’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022