Boyer () is a French surname. In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of other names. Origins and statistics 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). , Boyer ranks 55th in the most common surnames in France. For the period 1891–1990 it ranked 34th. 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. 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 avoids confusion between -oi-er and -oier . In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of several other names : In England, it may come from bowyer, meaning "bow maker" or "bow seller." In Turkish, the name may come from "boy-er", "boy" meaning "size" or "stature" and "er" meaning "man" or "soldier." It can also be a corruption or deliberate alteration of German names like Bayer or Bauer. People with the surname Abel Boyer (1667–1729), French-English lexicographer and journalist Alexis de Boyer (1757–1833), French surgeon Andre Boyer (disambiguation), several people Angélique Boyer (born 1988), French-Mexican actress Anita Boyer (1915–1985), American Big Band singer and songwriter Anise Boyer (1914–2008), American dancer and actress Anne Boyer (born 1973), American poet and essayist Antide Boyer (1850-1918), French manual worker, Provençal dialect writer and journalist Auguste Boyer (1896-1956), French professional golfer prominent on the European circuit Benjamin Markley Boyer (1823-1887), Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives Bert Boyer, director of the Centre of Alaska Native Health Research Bill Boyer Jr., American entrepreneur, owner of Mokulele Airlines Blaine Boyer (born 1981), American baseball player Blair Boyer (born 1981), Australian politician Boni Boyer (1958–1996), American vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Carl Benjamin Boyer (1906–1976), American historian of mathematics Charles Boyer (1899–1978), French-American actor Charles-Georges Boyer (1743–1806 or 1807), French music publisher Charles P. Boyer (born 1942), American mathematician Christine Boyer (1771-1800), first wife of Lucien Bonaparte Claude Boyer (1618-1698), French clergyman, playwright, apologist and poet Claudette Boyer (1938–2013),