Meaning

noun (formerly) a title of respect for a man in Turkey or Egypt

noun the governor of a district or province in the Ottoman Empire

origin* As a north German and Dutch surname, variant of Beye, Baye, vowel variants of the Danish surname Boye. * Also as a German surname, Germanized from Lower Sorbian baj (“storyteller”), from Proto-Slavic *bajь, related to *bajati (“to tell”). Compare Bay. * As a French surname, from several placenames in France, from a regional variant of bief (“mill-race”). * As an Islamic surname (generally…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0