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English and Scottish: nickname for a young or a small and slender person from Middle English brid bird burd (Old English bird brid perhaps also byrd) ‘bird young bird’ also ‘young man young woman child’. Irish: Anglicized form of a number of Irish names erroneously thought to contain the element éan ‘bird’ in particular Ó hÉinigh (see Heagney ) Ó hÉanna (see Heaney ) Ó hÉanacháin (see Heneghan ) and Mac an Déaghanaigh (see McEneaney ). Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames meaning ‘bird’ as for example German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Vogel French Loiseau Czech Ptáček (see Ptacek ) and Pták Polish Ptak . Native American: translation into English (and shortening) of a personal name based on a word such as Lakota Sioux ziŋtkala meaning ‘bird’. The importance of the birds particularly eagles (see Eagle ) and hawks (see Hawk ) to Native Americans is reflected in their traditional personal names many of which were adopted as surnames (translated into English) e.g. Black Bird (see Blackbird ) King Bird (see Kingbird ) and Red Bird (see Redbird ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022