BEARD

BEARD. AVhen the unnatural process of shaving was unknown, as it was during a great part of tlie middle ages, many persons were known by sobriquets having reference to this appendage to the manly chin. Besides Beard, we have, or have had. Blackboard, Fairbeard, Longbeard, Heavj'beard, and Beardman, A coimnon form in fl.R. is cum JSarba, as Hugo cumBarba, Johannes cum Barba. In Domesd. the powerful Hugh de Montfort is sometimes described as Hugo Barbatus. The name may, however, be local, from Beard, a township in Derbyshire.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.