Boyer (French pronunciation: [bwaje]) is a French surname. 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).
As of 2021, Boyer ranks 55th in the most common surnames in France. For the period 1891–1990 it ranked 34th.
Like many other surnames, it used to be a nickname describing somebody's job: "bullock driver", "cowherd", that is to say Bouvier in common French. 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 avoids confusion between -oi-er and -oier .
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."
- 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
- Andre Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- Angélique Boyer (born 1988), French-Mexican actress
- Anita Boyer (1915–1985), American Big Band singer and songwriter
- Anise Boyer (1914–2008), American dancer and actress
- Anne Boyer (born 1973), American poet and essayist
- Antide Boyer (1850-1918), French manual worker, Provençal dialect writer and journalist
- Auguste Boyer (1896-1956), French professional golfer prominent on the European circuit
- Benjamin Markley Boyer (1823-1887), Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Bert Boyer (born nd.), director of the Centre of Alaska Native Health Research
- Bill Boyer (c. 1906-1973), entrepreneur and former vice president of the Minnesota Vikings
- Bill Boyer Jr. (born nd.), American entrepreneur, owner of Mokulele Airlines
- Blaine Boyer (born 1981), American baseball player
- Blair Boyer (born 1981), Australian politician
- Boni Boyer (1958–1996), American vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer
- Carl Benjamin Boyer (1906–1976), American historian of mathematics
- Charles Boyer (1899–1978), French-American actor
- Charles-Georges Boyer (1743–1806 or 1807), French music publisher
- Charles P. Boyer (born 1942), American mathematician
- Christine Boyer (1771-1800), first wife of Lucien Bonaparte
- Claude Boyer (1618-1698), French clergyman, playwright, apologist and poet
- Claudette Boyer (1938–2013), Canadian politician
- Clete Boyer (1937–2007), American baseball player
- David Boyer (born nd.), American politician
- Denise Boyer-Merdich (born 1962), American soccer player and a part of United States women's national team
- Derek Boyer (born 1969), Fijian-Australian world champion powerlifter
- Doug Boyer (born 1947), Iowa business entrepreneur and philanthropist
- 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
- Éric Boyer (born 1963), French professional road bicycle racer
- Ernest L. Boyer (1928-1995), American educator
- François Boyer (1920-2003), French screenwriter
- G. Bruce Boyer (born 1941), Journalist
- George Boyer (born 1954), Professor of Labor Economics in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University
- Gilles Boyer (born 1971), French politician of the Horizons party and elected Member of the European Parliament
- Glenn Boyer (1924–2013), American writer
- Greg Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- Herbert Boyer (born 1936), American biochemist and businessman
- India Boyer (1907–1998), American architect
- Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904), French-American model and heiress
- 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 (1776–1843), Haitian President and emancipator of slaves in Santo Domingo
- Jean-Pierre Boyer (cardinal) (1829–1896), French prelate of the Catholic Church, also the Bishop of Clermont and Archbishop of Bourges
- Jeremy Boyer (born 1980), American stadium organist
- Jim Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- John W. Boyer (1890-1924), race car driver and co-winner of the 1924 Indianapolis 500.
- John W. Boyer (born 1946), American historian and academic administrator
- Joseph Boyer (1848–1930), a Canadian-American inventor and computer industrialist
- Josh Boyer (born 1977), American football coach
- Julien Boyer (born 1988), French professional footballer who plays as a left-back
- Katherine Boyer (born nd.), Canadian Métis artist
- Katy Boyer (born nd.), American actress
- Ken Boyer (1931–1982), American baseball player
- LaNada Boyer (born 1947), Native American writer and activist
- Lewis L. Boyer (1886-1944), American politician and U.S. Representative of Illinois
- Lisa Boyer (born nd.), College Basketball Coach
- Louis Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- Lucien Boyer (1876-1942), French music hall singer
- Lucienne Boyer (1901–1983), French singer
- Mark Boyer (born 1960), retired American football tight end
- Mark A. Boyer (born 1961), Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut and a specialist in international relations theory
- Marius Boyer (1885–1947), French architect and professor
- Marine Boyer (born 2000), French female artistic gymnast
- Max Boyer (born 1984), Canadian professional wrestler
- Merle Boyer (1920–2009), American jewelry designer
- Michael Boyer (born 1960), American actor and showman
- Michael P. Boyer (1831–1867), American politician from Pennsylvania
- Miguel Boyer (1939–2014), Spanish politician
- Mitch Boyer (1837–1876), Old West guide and interpreter of Sioux and French Canadian descent
- Myriam Boyer (born 1948), French film and television actress
- Nate Boyer (born 1981), United States Army Green Beret and actor
- Nikki Boyer (born 1975), American actress and singer-songwriter
- Otto Boyer (1874–1912), German genre painter and writer
- Pascal Boyer (born nd.), French-American anthropologist
- Patrick Boyer (born 1945), Canadian politician
- Paul Boyer (disambiguation), several people
- Peter Boyer (born 1970), American composer
- 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
- Rick Boyer (1943–2021), American author and university professor
- Robert Stephen Boyer (born nd.), American professor of computer science, mathematics, and philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin
- Robert Hamilton Boyer (1932-1966), a 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
- Sally Boyer (born nd.), American gambler
- Stéphen Boyer (born 1996), French volleyball player
- Stephen A. Boyer (1828–1904), American politician from Maryland
- Stéphane Boyer (born 1988), Canadian politician and mayor of Laval, Quebec
- Valérie Boyer (born 1962), French politician and Senator for Bouches-du-Rhône
- Xavier Boyer (born nd.), singer of the group Tahiti 80
- Yves Boyer (born 1965), French luger who competed in the men's singles and doubles events at the 1992 Winter Olympics
- Yvonne Boyer (born 1953), first indigenous person from Ontario appointed to the Senate of Canada
- Zac Boyer (born 1971), National Hockey League right winger
- Elayna Boyer (born 2010), volleyball player
See also
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°)
- "Boyer : nom de famille Boyer. Nombre et localisation". www.journaldesfemmes.com (in French). Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. 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
Surname listThis page lists people with the surname Boyer. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link. Categories: