Bold Family History

English: nickname from Middle English bold ‘courageous’, ‘daring’ (Old English b(e)ald, cognate with Old High German bald). In some cases it may derive from an Old English personal name (see Bald). English: topographic name for someone who lived or worked at the main house in a settlement, from Old English bold, the usual West Midland and northwestern form of Old English boðl, botl ‘dwelling house’, ‘hall’. English: habitational name for someone from Bold in Lancashire, which is named with Old English bold ‘dwelling’, as in 2 above. German: from the Germanic personal name Baldo, a short form of the various compound names with the element bald ‘bold’, notably Baldwin in the north, and Reinbold in the south. Swedish: probably of German origin.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press