Herod Family History

English: usually a variant of Herald (Middle English Herald Heraud Heroud). Occasionally the name may have been used as a nickname in allusion to the Biblical King Herod played as a bragging tyrant in medieval mystery plays or for someone who had an overbearing temper but evidence to support this possibility is lacking. Herod (Greek Hērōdēs apparently derived from hērōs ‘hero’) was the name of the king of Judea (died AD ) who at the time of the birth of Christ ordered that all male children in Bethlehem should be slaughtered (Matthew 16-18). American shortened form of Greek Herodiadis a patronymic from the classical personal name Hērodiōn. This was the name of a relative of Saint Paul and an early Bishop of Patras venerated in the Orthodox Church. Hērodēs ‘Herod’ is also found in Greek as a nickname for a violent man but this is less likely to be the source of the surname.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022