Byrd_(surname)

Byrd (surname)

Byrd (surname)

English surname

This article is about the surname Byrd. For other uses, see Byrd.

Byrd is a surname, a variant spelling of the English word "bird,"[2] which is derived from the Old English pre-7th-century word "bridde" (Middle English "brid" or "bird").[3] Another common variant of this surname is "Bird."[4]

A European Goldfinch common to the region
Quick Facts Pronunciation, Origin ...

Origin and variants

Byrd is a metonymic occupational or descriptive name that was originally used for a person who worked as a bird catcher (name shortened from "birdclever"),[5] or someone who had bird-like characteristics (i.e., bright eyed or active, or perhaps one with a beautiful singing voice).[6] A part of the ancient legacy of the Anglo-Saxon tribes in Britain, the surname Byrd was first found in Cheshire at Broxton, a village and civil parish in North West England.[citation needed] The surname was first recorded in Essex towards the end of the 12th Century as "Le Brid(d)."[7]

Until the gradual standardization of English spelling in the last few centuries, English lacked any comprehensive system of spelling. Consequently, spelling variations in names are frequently found in early Anglo-Saxon and later Anglo-Norman documents, meaning that a person's name was often spelled several different ways over a lifetime. As such, different variations of the Byrd surname usually have the same origin.[citation needed]

Notable people with the surname

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  2. [2]
    "Byrd Family History". ancestry.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  3. [3]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  4. [4]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  5. [5]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  6. [6]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
  7. [7]
    "Last name: Byrd". surnamedb.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018
This page lists people with the surname Byrd.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Byrd_(surname), and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.