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Surname Etymology and Meaning of BARD

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

(origin: Celtic. Local) From bawr, a top or summit, the highest; and eidde or oidde, instructor--the chief preceptor, instructor, or poet.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

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.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)