The name ‘Best’ originates from England, and France. It is derived from the Middle English, Old Flemish word ‘beste’ meaning animal, beast (Latin ‘bestia’), This was applied as a surname in two ways: as a metonymic occupational name for someone who looked after beasts i.e. a herdsman, and as a nickname for someone thought to resemble an animal i.e. violent, uncouth, or stupid man. In German it a topographic name for someone who lived by the river ‘Beste’, a tributary of the Trave, or habitation name from any of the various villages called ‘Besten’, said by Bahlow to be named from a Middle Low German word for poor soil. Compiled information from Historical and Private archive’s has confirmed that the surname ‘Best’ and or it’s variant’s, dates as far back as the 13th century were a ‘Richard le Beste’, from the county of Cambridgeshire, England, is recorded on the Hundred Rolls in 1273. ‘Best’ was a common name in the county of Yorkshire, England from early in the 15th century. One family can be traced back to ‘Edward Best’, a yeoman from Old Swinford, whose descendants included nailers and clothiers and, after the Industrial Revolution, a firm of Birmingh…
Coat of arms: Sable, a cinquefoil within an orle of cross crosslets or, on a canton of the last a porc…