Show ContentsBlade History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Blade

What does the name Blade mean?

Blade is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Blade family once lived in Yorkshire, where they settled in a place called Blades, which is now lost. Many of the place-names that yield surnames are of small communities, villages and hamlets and some of these no longer exist. The family claim descent from Drago de Bewere, a Danish nobleman who settled at a place called Blades in north England around 1016. He obtained extensive land grants which were recorded in the Domesday Book Survey of 1086. The variant Burseblades emerged through a compounding of the names of the founder and the estate.

Early Origins of the Blade family

The surname Blade was first found in Yorkshire where they held a family seat from early times.

Early History of the Blade family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Blade research. Another 113 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1297 and 1562 are included under the topic Early Blade History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Blade Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Blade family name include Blades, Blade, Blate, Blait, Blayde, Blaide, Blaydes, Blaites, Blaits, Blaides and many more.

Early Notables of the Blade family

More information is included under the topic Early Blade Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Blade Ranking

In the United States, the name Blade is the 15,266th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1


Blade migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Blade surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Blade Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • Timothy Blade, who landed in Virginia in 1654 2
  • Walter Blade, who arrived in Virginia in 1657 2
Blade Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Richard Blade, who arrived in New York in 1837 2
  • Walter E. Blade, aged 23, originally from Liverpool, arrived in New York in 1893 aboard the ship "Majestic (1890)" from Liverpool, England 3
Blade Settlers in United States in the 20th Century
  • John Blade, aged 27, originally from Ireland, arrived in New York in 1907 aboard the ship "Campania" from Queenstown, Ireland 3
  • Annie Blade, aged 56, originally from Liverpool, England, arrived in New York in 1908 aboard the ship "Caronia" from Liverpool, England 3

Blade migration to Canada +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Blade Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century
  • Mr. Henry Blade U.E. who arrived at Port Roseway [Shelburne], Nova Scotia on October 26, 1783 was passenger number 166 aboard the ship "HMS Clinton", picked up on September 28, 1783 at Staten Island, New York 4

Contemporary Notables of the name Blade (post 1700) +

  • Brian Blade (b. 1970), American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter


  1. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  2. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  3. Ellis Island Search retrieved 15th November 2022. Retrieved from https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-result
  4. Rubincam, Milton. The Old United Empire Loyalists List. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1976. (Originally published as; United Empire Loyalists. The Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada. Rose Publishing Company, 1885.) ISBN 0-8063-0331-X


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