Why so many spellings of our name?

Our family names include; Bailleue, Baillew, Balew, Ballew, Ballieu, Balliew, Balloo, Ballou(e), Ballough, Ballow(e), Ballue, Balow, Balue, Beauleau, Belleau, Belew, Belieu, Belleau, Bellew, Bellou, Bellow(s), Bellue, Belue, Belyeu, Belyew, Bilieu, Billew, Billou, Billue, Bilou, Bilow, Bilyeu, Blaeu, Blew, Bloo, Blow, Blue, Boileau, DeBelleau, and other variant spellings! “Soundex Index B400”.

So why so many? This is a problem most genealogy surnames have and there have been thousands of research articles in this area. Surnames have been used to identify a person’s tribe, community, or genetic lineage since ancient times. The tradition of using surnames has arisen separately in different cultures around the world. Family names came into use in the later Middle Ages. There are four main types of surnames: patronymic, local, occupational, and surnames of office. Ours seems to be “local” in origin.