Banerjee or Bandyopadhyay is a surname in the Bengal region of India and are often used interchangeably. The name is also spelt Bannerjee, Banerji, Banerjie, Bonnerjee, Bandopadhyaya and Bandyopadhyay.
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History
"Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Brahman) name, the first element of which, Ban-, is a shortened form of the village name Bandoghat. The final element -jee is derived from jha (greatly reduced form of Sanskrit upadhyaya ‘teacher’); thus, Banerjee ‘teacher from the village of Bandoghat’. In Bengali names formed with -jee, the initial element is believed to indicate a village granted by Ballal Sen, a legendary ancient king of Bengal, to the ancestor of the person bearing the surname. A Sanskrit version of this name, Vandyopadhyaya, was coined later, from the elements vandya ‘venerable’ + upadhyaya ‘teacher’. "
Tagore family
The family surname of the Tagores is Banerjee (Bandopadhyay).
According to their family tradition the Tagores trace their descent from Rarheya Brahmins of Shandilya clan from Kanauj who settled in the region situated on the right bank of river Hooghly(Rarh) in the eighth century A.D. Bhattanarayana was a Brahmin of this clan who was an established Saskrit Littérateur. Around the tenth century A.D, one of his sons Dinanath migrated to the other side of the river where he got a gift of 'Kush gram' in Burdwan. Thus he came to be known as Dinanath Kushari giving up his own surname Bandyopadhyay. Later the Kusharis (descendants of Dinanath Kushari) migrated to Jessore, Khulna.