Ballard Name Study

Profile managers: Paul Ballard [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

About the Project

The Ballard Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Ballard name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Ballard name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Ballard's), by time period (18th Century Ballard's), or by topic (Ballard DNA, Ballard Occupations, Ballard Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Ballard Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Paul Ballard for assistance.

... ... ... is a member of the Ballard Name Study Project.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

Membership

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Surname1
• Surname2

This unusual name is recorded in many spelling forms including Bullard, Ballard, Belward, Bellyard, Bil(l)yard, and Bellard. It is an example of that sizeable group of early surnames that were created from the habitual use of nicknames. These were usually given with reference to a variety of characteristics, such as physical attributes and moral characteristics, although habits of dress and occupation were also common. The derivation is from the Middle English "bal(le)", used in the transferred sense of a hairless patch on the skull, with the addition of the Angl-Saxon suffix "ard", whose precise translation is uncertain.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Peter Ballard, which was dated 1196, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Northamptonshire", during the reign of King Richard 1st, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199.

Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Early examples of the surname recordings include those of Alured Balard in Essex in 1273 and Geoffrey Bolhard of Warwick in 1275. Later recordings are those of Moyses Billiard, a witness at St Botolphs church, Bishopgate, London, on October 10th 1631, whilst on March 31st 1634, John Bilyard was christened at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney. On July 15th 1635, William Ballard, aged 32 yrs., together with his wife, Elizabeth, aged 26 yrs., and children, Hester and Jo, aged respectively one year and 2 yrs., embarked from London on the ship "James" bound for New England. They were among the earliest recorded name bearers to settle in America.

There are other sources for this name, besides the Anglo-Saxon. Not all people bearing the name are of English origins. It is common, with native etymology among several Celtic nations, although the British Celtic form is likely the original, and it may be that "Bald head" is a false etymology designed to give the name English roots. The earliest form is Ap Alard, meaning the "son of the fox" in Welsh, and it passed from Wales to Brittany as Aballard, whence it became popular in France under the form Aballaird, and thence to Spain.