# Bird (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bird/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 33,457 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,041 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 9,228 people |
| Change since 2000 | -1.5% (33,962 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Byrd |

## Etymology

* As an English and Scottish surname, from the noun bird. * As an Irish surname, Anglicized/translated from several names erroneously thought to contain the element éan (“bird”) such as Ó hÉinigh (see Heagney), Ó hÉanna (see Heaney), Ó hÉanacháin (see Heneghan) and Mac an Déaghanaigh (see McEneaney). * Similarly translated from several other languages containing the word bird, such as German Vogel, French Loiseau, Czech Ptáček see Ptacek), Pták, Polish Ptak. * This also extends to Native American names, such as Lakota ziŋtkala (“bird”). Compare Eagle, Hawk; Blackbird, Kingbird, Redbird, etc.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bird in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 88% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 3.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.0% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bird in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Argentina, Austria and Australia.

## People named Bird

- Larry Bird, American basketball player and coach (born 1956)
- Brad Bird, American film director, animator, screenwriter and producer (born 1957)
- Sue Bird, American basketball player (born 1980)
- Andrew Bird, American singer, musician and multi-instrumentalist (born 1973)
- Nikki Amuka-Bird, British actress
- Simon Bird, British actor and comedian
- Laurie Bird, American actress, photographer (1953–1979)
- Billie Bird, American actress (1908-2002)
- Robert Montgomery Bird, American novelist, playwright, physician (1806–1854)
- Robert Byron Bird, American chemical engineer (1924–2020)
- Poldy Bird, Argentine writer (1941-2018)
- Betty Bird, Austrian actress (1901-1998)

and 8 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Byrd, Baird, Burd, Bard, Birt, Beaird, Brod, Bride, Barrett, Brady, Beard, Britt.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.