Location of the Isle of Bute | |
Origin | |
---|---|
Region of origin | Scotland |
Other names | |
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).