A Nicholas Speid was occupying land in Angus in 1410, giving this surname a documented Scottish footprint six centuries deep despite there being only fifteen Speids in the country by 1901. Few names that rare can point at a medieval record and a single county. The rest is thinner, and one part is genuinely strange: most Speids alive today are not in Scotland at all.
What Does the Surname Speid Mean?
Success. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland treats Speid as a form of Speed, a nickname from Middle English sped, meaning success, prosperity or smooth progress, from Old English spēd. The modern sense of quickness came later, producing a parallel nickname for a fast runner.
So an early Speid was either a fortunate man or a quick one, and the records do not say which. Either way it is a nickname, which puts Speid with Colt rather than among territorial names that arrive with land attached. The English trail is older, beginning with Godfrey Sped in the Pipe Rolls of Suffolk in 1185.
Is Speid Just Speed With a Scots Spelling?
On the dictionary evidence, yes. The Oxford entry says only "see Speed", the way a reference work records a variant with no separate history. The spelling looks Scots, since Older Scots regularly wrote a long e with ei, as in heid for head and deid for dead. That is a reasonable reading rather than a proven one.
The census shows which spelling is the outlier: 460 Speeds in Scotland in 1901 at 1,259th, against 15 Speids at 10,045th. Run both together from the start, with Speedie and Speedy, for the reasons our note on surname spelling sets out.
Where in Scotland Is the Speid Name Found?
Angus, consistently. Nicholas Speid held land there in 1410, and several ministers of the name appear through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a small family with a settled footing rather than a scattered spelling.
The name is often attached to a Speid family of Ardovie, on the edge of Montreathmont Moor about three miles south of Brechin. Ardovie is real and the association widely repeated, but we could not verify it in an independent source, so treat it as tradition awaiting a document. The estate papers around Brechin are where that gets settled.
Our histories of the House of Dun nearby and Clan Wishart in Angus and the Mearns describe the families a Speid tenant or minister lived among.
Why Are Most Speids in Jamaica?
Of roughly 510 Speids worldwide, 257 are in Jamaica, 139 in the United States, 55 in Panama, 36 in England, nine in Canada and eight in Scotland. The reason is not a happy one. Scots were heavily represented among the planters, overseers and merchants of eighteenth-century Jamaica, and surnames passed from those households to the enslaved people held in them. A Jamaican Speid line and a Scottish one may share a name without sharing an ancestor, as our overview of Scottish surnames abroad explains.
How Do You Trace a Speid Line?
- Search Speid, Speed, Speedie, Speedy and Sped as one set; the spelling on a certificate was rarely the family's own choice.
- Start in Angus. Brechin, Montrose and the landward parishes hold almost all the early material, and the Fasti and presbytery records carry the ministers, who leave more paper than tenants.
- Work backward from the statutory registers using our ScotlandsPeople guide before touching anything earlier.
- For a Caribbean line, treat the Scottish and Jamaican records as separate projects until a document joins them.
Own a Piece of Speid Heritage
Angus held a Nicholas Speid in 1410 and fifteen of his namesakes five centuries later, a thread thin enough to be worth holding onto. The range is a mug, a framed keepsake ornament and a garden flag, each showing the family crest on a tartan background. No pattern was ever made for this spelling, so the cloth is there to set off the crest rather than to descend with the name, as our guide to Scottish tartan and who wears it explains. Shipping is free.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Speid Name
What does the surname Speid mean?
Success or good fortune, through Speed, from Middle English sped and Old English spēd.
Is Speid a variant of Speed?
Yes. The Oxford dictionary records Speid as a form of Speed. Search both together, with Speedie and Speedy.
Is Speid a clan name?
No. There is no Clan Speid, no chief and no clan society. It is a nickname surname with an Angus footing, and printed sept lists prove less than they look, as our sept-name list explains.
Sources and Further Reading
- Oxford Dictionary of Family Names: Speid — the bare cross-reference to Speed.
- Oxford Dictionary of Family Names: Speed — Middle English sped and Speid among the Scottish forms.
- Surname Database: Speed — Godfrey Sped in the 1185 Pipe Rolls of Suffolk.
- Forebears: Speid — Nicholas Speid in Angus in 1410 and the worldwide distribution.
- Speid in the 1901 Scottish census — 15 bearers, ranked 10,045th.
- Speed in the same index — 460 bearers at 1,259th, for contrast.
- George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland — for the early Angus entries in full.
- Scotland's People — the Brechin and Montrose registers.
Explore our Speid family gifts collection for a meaningful way to celebrate the name.