Many family names like the Bunyan name have changed over centuries.  The oldest recorded name I have managed to find from Melrose Regality records, dates back to 1540.  It was at this time Tomas Bonze inherited 8 acres of land from the Monks of Melrose. Another pronunciation of the name (although not in the Borders) was ‘Bunhye’.  This dates back to around 1514 in Edinburgh, which is listed in George F Blacks surnames of Scotland. This source also mentions the name Bunyie and Bunzie, mainly Masons around the 15^th – 16th Century, from Newstead.

I also have within my possession a newspaper clipping dating back to 1939, which clearly states that the Bunyan family is one of the oldest families that have lived in Melrose, who can trace their descent back to the building of the Abbey.

There is also an account of the Bunyan’s, Murray and Veitch families of Spittal, in George Tancreds ‘Rule water and its People’.