Beard Family History

English:: nickname for a bearded man (from Middle English berd 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 placename 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.

In North America, this surname has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other languages, in particular German Barth, habitational name from a place called Beard in Derbyshire (now represented by Beard Hall and Beardwood Farms in New Mills parish).

This location derives its name by dissimilation from Old English brerd ‘rim, bank’.