1,736 Global SHEPPERD Family Members

SHEPPERD Family History

This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is an occupational name for someone employed to tend and watch over sheep, a shepherd. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "sceap", or "scip", sheep, with either "hierde", herdsman, from "heord", herd, flock, or "weard", guardian, watchman. Occasionally the modern surname may derive from an occupational name for a "shipward", as in the following recordings from Bristol; Thomas Shypward (1432) and John Shipward (1467). There are at least ten variant spellings of the surname, ranging from Shepherd, Shephard and Sheppard to Shepeard, Shepperd and Shippard.