Heid
A surname with multiple possible roots, most likely from a Germanic word for “heath” or a shortened form of a place-name or old personal name.
The #8,213 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,422 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Heid is an old German surname with more than one plausible source. In some cases it may be a shortened form of names built on Germanic haid/heid, a word family related to “state,” “condition,” or older personal-name elements such as those seen in medieval compound names. In other cases it may be connected with names formed from Haide/Heide, meaning a heath, moor, or uncultivated tract of land, or with place-names using that element.
History
The historical material points to both anthroponymic and topographic explanations, so the surname is best treated as mixed and locally variable. The same spelling can also reflect shortened or clipped forms of longer names in German-speaking areas. In surname records, Heid may therefore arise independently in more than one region rather than from a single family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers linked the same name-family to both old German personal names and to landscape words like “heath,” showing how hard it can be to pin down one origin from spelling alone.
From the historical record
“loc. n., Yorks ; D.B. Acheford Hedach or Headech. N. Heid- rekr ; a p.n. ; D.B. Ederic, Edic; D. Heyderick; Fl. Heiderih ; G.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (1st ed.)