Bayard Family History

French: from Old French baiart ‘bay-colored’ a nickname for someone with reddish-brown hair. Compare 2 below.

English (of Norman origin): from Bayard the name of the bright bay magic horse given by Charlemagne to Renaud in a 12th-century chanson de geste derived from Old French baiart (as in 1 above). It was subsequently used as a mock-heroic name for any horse particularly for a blindly reckless or foolish one.

Applied as a nickname it probably denoted someone with a proud haughty or reckless disposition rather than someone with reddish brown hair.

English (of Norman origin): perhaps occasionally from Old French bayard baiart ‘hand barrow used for heavy loads’ used possibly to denote a mason's laborer.