For other uses, see
Boyd .
Boyd Region of origin Scotland Variant form(s) Boid ; Bhoid
Boyd is an ancient Scottish surname .[ 1]
The name is attached to Simon, one of several brothers and children of Alan, son of Flathald. Simon's son Robert was called Boyt or Boyd from the Celtic term boidhe , meaning fair or yellow. Robert the Bruce granted lands to Sir Robert Boyd as the ancestor of the earls of Kilmarnock.[ 1] The Scottish peerage of the earls of Kilmarnock ends shortly after William Boyd rebelled in the Battle of Culloden in 1746. William was arrested and executed at the Tower of London in 1746. He left a widow and three sons including James, Lord Boyd who married and succeeded his father as the Earl of Errol, taking his mother's title.[ 2]
Another theory is of territorial origins which may have been taken from the Bhoid , the Gaelic term for the island of Bute ,[ 3] in the Firth of Clyde . The surname was common in Edinburgh in the 17th century.[ 4] The Scottish Gaelic form of the surname is Boid (masculine),[ 5] and Bhoid (feminine).
Adam Boyd (born 1982), English footballer
Adele Boyd (1932–2018), American field hockey player
Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton , British politician
Alan Stephenson Boyd , American politician
Alex Boyd (photographer) , Scottish photographer
Alexander Boyd, 3rd Lord Boyd (died after 1508), Scottish noble
Alfred Boyd , Canadian politician
Alice Boyd , Scottish artist
Allen Boyd , American politician
Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd (1825–1899), Scottish writer
Anne Boyd , Australian composer
Archibald Boyd , English cleric
Archibald Boyd-Carpenter , British politician
Archie Boyd (footballer) , Scottish footballer
Arnold Boyd , British ornithologist
Arthur Boyd (Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd), Australian painter
Arthur Merric Boyd , Australian painter
Augusto Samuel Boyd , President of Panama
James Boyd (disambiguation)
James Boyd, 2nd Lord Boyd (c. 1469–1484), Scottish noble
James Boyd, 9th Lord Boyd (died 1654), Scottish noble
Jason Boyd, American record producer and songwriter known professionally as Poo Bear
Jane Boyd , British artist
Jenna Boyd , American actress
Jenny Boyd , British model, sister of Pattie Boyd
Jerry Boyd (1930–2002), American boxing trainer writing as F.X. Toole
Jim Boyd (disambiguation)
Joe Boyd , American record producer
John Boyd (disambiguation)
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr , Scottish nutritionist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
John Boyd-Carpenter, Baron Boyd-Carpenter , British politician
Johnny Boyd , American racing driver
Jonathan Boyd (1944–1999), Australian wrestler
Joseph Boyd (disambiguation)
Julian Boyd , American basketball player
Justin Boyd (born 1989), Canadian water polo player
Jason Boyd , British actor in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
James Boyd, later James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll (1726–1778), Scottish noble
Mackenzie Boyd , fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale
Malcolm Boyd (1923–2015), American Episcopal priest and author
Margaret Boyd (1913–1993), English lacrosse player and schoolteacher
Margot Boyd (1913–2008), British actor
Mark Alexander Boyd (1563–1601), Scottish poet
Mark Frederick Boyd (1889–1968), American malariologist and writer
Marion Boyd (1946–2022), Canadian politician
Martin Boyd (1893–1972), Australian architect and writer
Mary D. R. Boyd (1809–?), American children's author
Matthew Boyd (baseball) , (born 1991), American baseball player
Merle Kodo Boyd (1944–2022), American Zen Buddhist nun
Merric Boyd (1888–1959) Australian artist
Michele Boyd , American actress
Mike Boyd (disambiguation)
Milly Boyd , one of the Del Rubio triplets
Rakeem Boyd (born 1998), American football player
Rhea Boyd , American paediatrician
Richard Boyd (1942–2021), American philosopher
Richard Henry Boyd (R.H. Boyd, 1843–1922), African American minister and religious publisher
Richard Boyd Barrett (born 1967), Irish politician
Robbie Boyd , British singer/songwriter
Robert Boyd (disambiguation)
Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd (d. 1482)
Robert Boyd, 4th Lord Boyd (d. c.1557) (acceded Lordship 1547)
Robert Boyd, 5th Lord Boyd (c.1517–1559) (acceded Lordship 1558)
Robert Boyd, 7th Lord Boyd (1595–1628)
Robert Boyd, 8th Lord Boyd (c.1618–1640)
Robin Boyd (architect) (1919–1971), Australian architect, writer, teacher and social commentator
Robin Boyd (theologian) (1924–2018), Irish theologian and missionary to India
Russell Boyd (born 1944), Australian cinematographer
Sam Boyd , American gambling entrepreneur
Samuel S. Boyd (1807–1867), American enslaver
Sarah Boyd-Carpenter (born 1946), now Sarah Hogg, Viscountess Hailsham, The Baroness Hogg, British economist, journalist, business executive and politician
Sean Boyd , Australian water polo player
Shannon Boyd (born 1992), Australian rugby league player
Simon Lennox-Boyd, 2nd Viscount Boyd of Merton (born 1939), British peer
Stephen Boyd , Irish actor
Stephen P. Boyd , American professor and control theorist
Stephen William Boyd , Irish professor
Sean Boyd , British Businessman, Salford, England.
^ a b William Anderson (1867). The Scottish Nation: Or the Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland . Fullarton. p. 364 .
^ The Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland: The peerage of Scotland . W. Owen (and 2 others). 1790. p. 222 .
^ David Dobson (2003). The Scottish Surnames of Colonial America . Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8063-5209-1 .
^ Black, George Fraser (1946), The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History , New York: New York Public Library , pp. 94–95
^ Robertson, Boyd; Taylor, Iain (2003), Teach Yourself Gaelic , Teach Yourself , pp. 341–342