Burn as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Burn

What is the meaning of the name Burn ?

The baby name Burn is a boy name , 1 syllables long and is pronounced BURN.

Burn is English in Origin.

Burn is a transferred English and Scots surname, chiefly topographic in origin. Its root is Old English burna, also recorded as burne in Middle English and Older Scots, a masculine noun for a spring, brook, or small river. The form belongs with Germanic cognates such as German Born, pointing to Proto-Germanic *brunnō- or a closely related water-word. As a name, Burn therefore carries the literal sense stream or spring, rather than the modern verb connected with fire.

The surname appears especially in northern England and Lowland Scotland, where burn remains a common word in place-names such as Blackburn, Broxburn, and Bannockburn. Spelling was fluid in medieval records, producing Bourne, Bourn, Burnes, Burness, and Burns. Robert Burns’ family used Burnes before the poet adopted the shorter spelling. As a forename, Burn is rare and mostly a modern surname transfer.