Boyer

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).^[2]

As of 2021^[update], Boyer ranks 55th in the most common surnames in France.^[3] For the period 1891–1990 it ranked 34th.^[4]

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.^[5][6] 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 [waje] avoids confusion between -oi-er [wae] and -oier [waje].

In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of several other names :

1. In England, it may come from bowyer, meaning "bow maker" or "bow seller."^[7]
2. In Turkish, the name may come from "boy-er", "boy" meaning "size" or "stature" and "er" meaning "man" or "soldier."
3. It can also be a corruption or deliberate alteration of German names like Bayer, Beyer, or Bauer.