Boyer

Boyer (French pronunciation: [bwaje]) is a French surname.[1] In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of other names.

For other uses, see Boyer (disambiguation).

Origins and statistics

Boyer is found traditionally along the Mediterranean (Provence, Languedoc), the Rhône valley, Auvergne, Limousin, Périgord and more generally in the Southwest of France. It is also found in the north of the country. There are two variant spellings: Boyé (southwest) and Bouyer (Loire-Atlantique, Charente-Maritime).[2]

As of 2021, Boyer ranks 55th in the most common surnames in France.[3] For the period 1891–1990 it ranked 34th.[4]

Like many other surnames, it used to be a nickname describing somebody's job: "bullock driver", "cowherd", that is to say Bouvier in common French.[5][6] It derives mainly from the Occitan buòu "ox", with the suffix -iar / -ier, frenchified phonetically or, further north, sometimes from a variant form in dialectal French bô, bou "ox" corresponding to common French bœuf with the suffix -ier. In French, the modern spelling -oyer [waje] avoids confusion between -oi-er [wae] and -oier [waje].

In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of several other names :

  1. In England, it may come from bowyer, meaning "bow maker" or "bow seller."[7]
  2. In Turkish, the name may come from "boy-er", "boy" meaning "size" or "stature" and "er" meaning "man" or "soldier."
  3. It can also be a corruption or deliberate alteration of German names like Bayer or Bauer.

People with the surname

See also

Notes
  1. Albert Dauzat, Noms et prénoms de France, Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par Marie-Thérèse Morlet. p. 62a Bouvier.
  2. Repartition of the surname Boyer in France according to the number of births (Nb) and the Départements (n°)
  3. "Boyer : nom de famille Boyer. Nombre et localisation". www.journaldesfemmes.com (in French). Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  4. "LES NOMS DE FAMILLE LES PLUS PORTES PAR NAISSANCE EN FRANCE entre 1891 et 1990". www.geopatronyme.com. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  5. Dauzat 62a
  6. Marie-Thérèse Morlet, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille, Perrin 1997, article Bouvier, p.134; ISBN 2-262-01350-0
  7. http://www.ancestry.com.au/facts/Boyer-places-origin.ashx -- English variant
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