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The bard Surname

bard Name Meaning and History

  1. Scottish: occupational name from Gaelic bàrd ‘poet’, ‘minstrel’, ‘singer’. See also Baird.
  2. Scottish: perhaps also a habitational name (early forms such as Henry de Barde and Richard de Baard are recorded, and ‘de’ usually signifies ‘from’), but no suitable place has been identified.
  3. French: habitational name from any of the several minor places called Bar(d), from the Gaulish element barro ‘height’, ‘hill’. Compare Barre.
  4. French: metonymic occupational name for someone who used a handcart or barrow in his work, from Old French bard ‘barrow’.
  5. French: from Old French bart ‘mud’, ‘clay’ (Late Latin barrum, apparently of Celtic origin), in which case it is either a topographic name for someone living in a muddy area or an occupational name for a builder or bricklayer.
  6. Hungarian (Bárd): metonymic occupational name for a butcher, woodcutter or carpenter, from bárd ‘hatchet’, ‘cleaver’. Derivation from bárd ‘poet’ is unlikely because the word was borrowed from Gaelic only in the late 18th century.
  7. Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for someone with a luxurious beard, from a blend of German Bart and Yiddish bord, both meaning ‘beard’.
  8. Probably also an altered spelling of German Bart.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The bard name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the bard family name as far back in history as possible.

bard Family Facts

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Distribution of bard Families in the US in 1920
Number of bard families
 138-274
 47-137		 1-46
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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