What is nationality background of the name Beard?

Question

it may be Scottish.

Answer 1

This is what I found for you for the surname Beard.

Surname: Beard

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon and Old French origin, and is one of the oldest recorded in England appearing in the Domesday Book of 1086 in its Old French (Norman) form of "Hugo a la Barbe", in Hampshire. As a surname it has grown very naturally from a nickname for a wearer of a beard, derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "beard", and it often appears in early records in a prepositional form, such as Thomas Onelabarbe ("Thomas with the beard", 1280, Somerset). Between the 12th and 16th Centuries it was usual for men to be clean shaven, so the wearer of a beard was conspicuous during the crucial period for surname formation. The name could also be locational from Beard in Derbyshire, which means "(on) the bank or brim". The final "s" in the surname indicates the patronymic form, i.e., "son of Beard". Recordings from London Church Registers include: the christening of John, son of Richard Beard, on April 4th 1578, at St. Mary Woolnoth; the marriage of William Beard and Johane Reve on January 23rd 1590, at St. Gregory by St. Paul's; and the marriage of George Beard and Isabell Deane on November 15th 1598, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is a black shield, on a silver chevron, between ten silver martlets, five ogresses, the Crest being a lion's gamb couped gold, grasping a horse's leg erased above the knees black. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alsi Berd, which was dated 1086, in "Inquests of Ely", Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King William 1, known as "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1086. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Ancestry.com has collected data compiled from New York Passenger Lists to come up with the top places of origin for the Beard surname:

England: 205

Ireland: 67

Great Britain:  47

Scotland: 23

Germany: 4

Great Britain, Germany: 2

Also, according to Ancestry.com, of the 8,461 Beards in England in 1891, 16 percent or 1,385 came from London and 10 percent or 888  came from Gloucestershire.  

Of course, this answer comes with a caveat:  trace your own lineage back to its source and don't just rely on your family's surname as its place of origin.  

Ancestry.com notes that in 1840, most Beards in the United States  lived in Pennsylvania and Ohio.  By 1880,  the states with the highest number of Beards were Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  By 1920, the most Beards lived in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee.   Accordingly, even though Beard is of English origin, your family could have easily intermarried with Scots, Scots-Irish, or Chickasaws (for that matter) along the way.

Answer 3

I wish I knew! I also have a Beard in my tree. It's spelled all sorts of ways in the old paperwork. There's Beard, Baird, Bard, Beered, etc. I think they just spelled it the way it sounded to them and taking into account what part of the South they were living in, the pronunciation seems to change. About all I can tell you is that I'm pretty sure it's from the United Kingdom somewhere and I'd tend to side with you about it probably being Scottish. My Beard ancestor was a Chickasaw lady who married a Mr. Beard. Guess one could call her a "Bearded Lady", if they were so inclined. LOL!

Answer 4

Beard  

Last name origins & meanings:

English: nickname for a bearded man (Middle English, Old English beard). To be clean-shaven was the norm in non-Jewish communities in northwestern Europe from the 12th to the 16th century, the crucial period for surname formation. There is a place name and other evidence to show that this word was used as a byname in the Old English period, when beards were the norm; in this period the byname would have referred to a large or noticeable beard. As an American surname, this name has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other languages, in particular German Bart.

English: habitational name from a place in Derbyshire, which derives its name by dissimilation from Old English brerd ‘rim’, ‘bank’.