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LAIRD Family History

This pre-medieval surname is both Scottish, and later Irish. It mainly derives from the early Gaelic word of the pre 10th century 'laverd', meaning a land owner or land lord, and in surname terms is a 'status' name, although the modern meaning as chief of a clan, or minor nobility, is rather later, about the 15th century. The early recordings of Laird are from the famous Border Country, the fifty mile swathe of hills and valleys from Berwick on the East Coast to Carlisle on the West, an area which was fought over for at least fifteen hundred years.