Burns

This name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word “Bourne,” meaning “stream, flowing from a spring, a stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally.” In turn, the name means “someone who lived beside a stream.” The word can be found in northern England in placenames such as Redbourne, Legbourne but is commonly used in southern England (particularly Dorset) as a name for a small river, particularly in compound names such as Winterbourne. A Winterbourne is a stream or river that is dry through the summer months. In the south of England, the term was gradually replaced by the Old English “broc,” brook, and came to be restricted in meaning to an intermittently flowing stream, especially one that flowed only in winter; this meaning of “bourn” is still found in the dialects of Kent, Surrey, and Wiltshire. In the North, However, the word “burn” is still used for a stream.