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BUSS Family History

This very early English surname recorded in the spellings of Buss, Busse, and Buse, is English, although perhaps with some Norman-French influence. It derives either from the word "busse", meaning a cask, or "bush", meaning what is says, somebody who lived by a prominent bush. If the former, it was probably introduced into England at the time of the 1066 Norman Invasion, and describes a maker of wooden casks or barrels, although there are indications that occassionally it may have been used as a descriptive nickname for a rotund person, one who was 'barrel' shaped! In the second case of 'Bush', given the lack of spelling and the 'thick' local dialects of the medieval period, a change from Bush to Bus(se), would be quite logical...