Boyer
Boyer (French pronunciation: [bwaje]) is a French surname.[1] In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of other names.
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 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 :
- In England, it may come from bowyer, meaning "bow maker" or "bow seller."[7]
- In Turkish, the name may come from "boy-er", "boy" meaning "size" or "stature" and "er" meaning "man" or "soldier."
- It can also be a corruption or deliberate alteration of German names like Bayer or Bauer.
People with the surname[]
- Abel Boyer (1667–1729), French-English lexicographer and journalist
- Alexis de Boyer (1757–1833), French surgeon
- Angélique Boyer (born 1988), French-Mexican actress
- Bert Boyer, director of the Centre of Alaska Native Health Research
- Bill Boyer Jr., American entrepreneur, owner of Mokulele Airlines
- Carl Benjamin Boyer (1906–1976), American historian of mathematics
- Charles Boyer (1899–1978), French-American actor
- Charles P. Boyer (born 1942), American mathematician
- Claudette Boyer (1938–2013), Canadian politician
- Clete Boyer (1937–2007), American baseball player
- Edie Boyer (born 1966), American discus thrower
- Elizabeth H. Boyer (born 1952), American fantasy author
- Elizabeth M. Boyer (1913–2002), American lawyer, feminist founder of Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), and writer
- Erica Boyer (born 1956), American actress
- Ernest L. Boyer (1928-1995), American educator
- Glenn Boyer (1924–2013), American writer
- Herbert Boyer (born 1936), American biochemist and businessman
- India Boyer (1907–1998), American architect
- Jacques Boyer (born 1955), American cyclist and child molester
- Jacqueline Boyer (born 1941), French singer
- Jean Boyer (director) (1901–1965), French director and author
- Jean Boyer (politician) (born 1937), French politician
- Jean-Pierre Boyer (1821–1843), Haitian President and emancipator of slaves in Santo Domingo
- Joseph Boyer (1848–1930), a Canadian-American inventor and computer industrialist
- Katherine Boyer, Canadian Métis artist
- Katy Boyer, American actress
- Ken Boyer (1931–1982), American baseball player
- Louis Boyer (1901–1999), French astronomer
- Louis Boyer (1921-2017), French politician
- Louis Boyer (1795-1870), Québécois merchant
- Lucienne Boyer (1901–1983), French singer
- Max Boyer (born 1984), Canadian professional wrestler
- Merle Boyer (1920–2009), American jewelry designer
- Michael Boyer (born 1960), American actor and showman
- Miguel Boyer (born 1939), Spanish politician
- Mitch Boyer (1837–1876), Old West guide and interpreter of Sioux and French Canadian descent
- Nikki Boyer (born 1975), American actress and singer-songwriter
- Pascal Boyer, French-American anthropologist
- Patrick Boyer (born 1945), Canadian politician
- Paul D. Boyer (1918-2018), American biochemist
- Phil Boyer (born 1949), English footballer
- Pierre François Xavier Boyer (1772–1851), French general of the Napoleonic Wars and Algerian invasion
- Régis Boyer (1932–2017), French scholar
- Richard Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- Robert Stephen Boyer, American professor of computer science, mathematics, and philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin
- Robert Hamilton Boyer, a 33-year-old visiting professor shot and killed in Charles Whitman's shooting spree at The University of Texas at Austin in 1966, known for the Boyer–Lindquist coordinates
- Robert Boyer (artist) (1948–2004), Canadian artist of aboriginal heritage
- Scott Boyer (1947–2018), American musician
- Yvonne Boyer (born 1953), first indigenous person from Ontario appointed to the Senate of Canada
See also[]
- Boyar
- Bauer (disambiguation)
Notes[]
- ^ Albert Dauzat, Noms et prénoms de France, Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par Marie-Thérèse Morlet. p. 62a Bouvier.
- ^ Repartition of the surname Boyer in France according to the number of births (Nb) and the Départements (n°) [1]
- ^ "Boyer : nom de famille Boyer. Nombre et localisation". www.journaldesfemmes.com (in French). Retrieved 2021-06-13.
- ^ "LES NOMS DE FAMILLE LES PLUS PORTES PAR NAISSANCE EN FRANCE entre 1891 et 1990". www.geopatronyme.com. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
- ^ Dauzat 62a
- ^ Marie-Thérèse Morlet, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille, Perrin 1997, article Bouvier, p.134 ; ISBN 2-262-01350-0
- ^ http://www.ancestry.com.au/facts/Boyer-places-origin.ashx -- English variant
- Surnames
- Occitan-language surnames