Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Boy Coat of Arms / Boy Family CrestThe surname of BOY was a locational name 'of de Bois' the dweller in a wood or from the nickname for a young servant. Local surnames, by far the largest group, derived from a place name where the man held land or from the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived. These local surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in". The names may derive from a manor held, from working in a religious dwelling or from literally living by a wood or marsh or by a stream. The name was brought into England in the wake of the Norman Invasion of 1066, and Boi (without surname) listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 appears to be the first of the name on record. Ivo le Boye was mentioned in the year 1185 in County Lincolnshire, and Nicholas del Boise was recorded in the year 1201 in London. John de Boys was the rector of Fincham, County Norfolk in the year 1350. Edward Boyse of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. The earliest hereditary surnames in England are found shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and are of Norman French origin rather than native English. On the arrival of the Normans they identified themselves by references to the estates from which they came in northern France. These names moved rapidly on with their bearers into Scotland and Ireland. Others of the Norman Invaders took names from the estates in England which they had newly acquired. Most of the European surnames in countries such as England, Scotland and France were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name. Later instances of the name mention John Thomas Boys who was baptised at Canterbury Cathedral in 1590 and John Fendall married Susanna Boyce at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1760. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
