Cloyd History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Scotland

Etymology of Cloyd

What does the name Cloyd mean?

The Dalriadan clans of ancient Scotland spawned the ancestors of the Cloyd family. 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 Cloyd family

The surname Cloyd 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 Cloyd family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cloyd 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 Cloyd History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cloyd Spelling Variations

The medieval practice of spelling according to sound and repeated translation between Gaelic and English created many spelling variations of the same name. Cloyd has been recorded as MacLeod, MacCleod, MacCloud, MacLoud and many more.

Early Notables of the Cloyd 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)...
Another 38 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Cloyd Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cloyd Ranking

In the United States, the name Cloyd is the 8,314^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1

Cloyd migration to the United States +

Descendents of Dalriadan-Scottish families still populate many communities across North America. They are particularly common in Canada, since many went north as United Empire Loyalists at the time of the American War of Independence. Much later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the highland games and Clan societies that now dot North America sprang up, allowing many Scots to recover their lost national heritage. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Cloyd, or a variant listed above:

Cloyd Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Henry Cloyd, who landed in Virginia in 1648 2

Cloyd Settlers in United States in the 20th Century

Lucy Cloyd, aged 46, who immigrated to the United States, in 1910
Elisa Cloyd, aged 32, who immigrated to the United States, in 1911
Genevieve Cloyd, aged 38, who settled in America, in 1914
James Cloyd, aged 20, who immigrated to the United States from Carnarvon, Wales, in 1914
John H. Cloyd, aged 59, who immigrated to America from London, England, in 1922
... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Contemporary Notables of the name Cloyd (post 1700) +

William Cloyd Sr. (1933-2017), American architect and custom home builder from Santa Clarita, California
J. R. Cloyd, American Army Transport Service observer with Operation Windmill (1948), eponym of Cloyd Island, Antarctica
Paul V. Cloyd (1920-2005), American NBA basketball player
David Cloyd (b. 1974), American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and music engineer
Tyler James Cloyd (b. 1987), American Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies
Carl F. Cloyd, American Democratic Party politician, Postmaster at Clinton, Indiana, 1961-80 3
Harvey Cloyd Philpott (1909-1961), American politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina in 1961; he died eight months into his term
Brigadier-General Gordon Cloyd Hollar (1887-1963), American Deputy Provost-Marshal Services of Supply, US European Theater of Operations (1942-1946) 4
A. Cloyd Gress, American Democratic Party politician, Chair of Fulton County Democratic Party, 1927 5
James Cloyd Quigley (1887-1960), American Democratic Party politician, Nebraska Democratic State Chair, 1934-40; Member of Democratic National Committee from Nebraska, 1936-49 6

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
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)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 15) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
Generals of World War II. (Retrieved 2012, March 30) Gordon Hollar. Retrieved from http://generals.dk/general/Hollar/Gordon_Cloyd/USA.html
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 14) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 23) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html