Leod History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Scotland

The Clan from whom the Leod family descends began among the ancient Dalriadan kingdom of the west coast of Scotland. Their name comes from the personal name Leod. The Gaelic form of the surname is Mac Leoid, which means son of Leod, son of Olaf the Black, King of Man and the Northern Isles. Olaf was from a dynasty of Norse Kings, who, for centuries held the Isles. They were in turn descended from King Halfdan the Stingy, a King who was reputed to be descended from the god Frey. Leod held the island of Lewis, the mainland Glenelg and part of Skye in about 1195 AD. It was his two sons who founded the two great branches of the Siol Tormod and the Siol Torquil.

Early Origins of the Leod family

The surname Leod was first found in on the Isle of Lewis (Scottish Gaelic: Leòdhas), where the Siol Tormod branch held the territories of Harris, Glenelg and Dunvegan Castle in Skye; while the Siol Torquil branch held Assynt and Cadboll, and the Island of Ramasay. There were no title deeds for these territories as they had been considered possessions of Norway. Yet when King Haakon asserted his authority over the lands in 1263 King Alexander resisted. Although the Scottish King Alexander signed the Treaty of Perth allowing payment of rent to Norway for all these lands, it was never paid and the whole of the western Isles became Scottish possessions.

Early History of the Leod family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Leod research. Another 380 words (27 lines of text) covering the years 1314, 1597, 1613, 1715, 1745, 1777, 1901 and 1959 are included under the topic Early Leod History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Leod Spelling Variations

Historical recordings of the name Leod include many spelling variations. They are the result of repeated translations of the name from Gaelic to English and inconsistencies in spelling rules. They include MacLeod, MacCleod, MacCloud, MacLoud and many more.

Early Notables of the Leod family

Notable amongst the Clan from early times was

Sir Roderick MacLeod of Dunvegan Castle who led 600 of his Clansmen to Ireland to assist in O'Donnell's rebellion and Lord MacLeod's Highlanders (73rd Regiment - later the 71st Regiment) which was rai...

Leod migration to the United States +

Significant portions of the populations of both the United States and Canada are still made up of the ancestors of Dalriadan families. Some of those in Canada originally settled the United States, but went north as United Empire Loyalists in the American War of Independence. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the ancestors of many Scots on both sides of the border begin to recover their collective national heritage through Clan societies and highland games. Some of the first North American settlers carried this name or one of its variants:

Leod Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

George W Leod, who landed in Charleston, South Carolina in 1830 1
Bernard M Leod, who arrived in Maryland in 1849 1

Leod migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Leod Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Hugh Leod, a joiner, who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) sometime between 1825 and 1832

Citations +

Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)