This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Edward,' from the nick. Ted.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the tod,' i.e. the fox, which see, compare Todhunter, a North-English surname. Halliwell says, 'Tod, a fox, still in use'.

John le Tod, c. MOO. Writs of Parliament.

1575. Abraham Todde, of Newcastle: Register of the University of Oxford.

1597. Robert Baker and Jane Todd, widow: Marriage Lic. (London).

Explained by Bardsley and Harrison as a nickname from provincial name of the fox. With two or three exceptions the second d appears to be no older than the eighteenth century. Baldwin Tod held land in Lambirtoun, c. 1270 (BNCH., XVI, p. 334), and the croft of Robert Tod in the vill of Gordune is mentioned, c. 1280 (Kelso, 124). A reservation of the archdeaconry of Caithness was made to Master John Todd in 1329 (Pop. Lett., II, p. 302), doubtless the Mr. John Tod to whom in 1330 a payment was made to enable him to redeem his books which had been carried off by the English to England (ER., I, p. 311). Nicholas, son of John Tod, was a hostage in England soon after 1330. Several persons of this name were connected with Berwick or Berwickshire later than 1330, one of them giving an annual rent for the maintenance of the bridge over the Tweed, and the name appears in Stirlingshire in 1339 (Bain, III, p. 241), in Perthshire in 1361, and in Ayrshire 1571. Thomas dictus Todde was canon of Glasgow and rector of Old Roxburgh in the reign of David II (Stodart, II, p. 394). Hugo Tod was pricer of flesh in Edinburgh, 1403 (Guildry, p. 114), John Tode was admitted burgess of Aberdeen, 1445 (NSCM., I, p. 9), John Tode, burgess of Brechin in record 1450 (REB., II, 80), Robert Tod, notary in Perth, 1458 (RAA., II, 114), and Elizabeth Tode, daughter of Alexander Tode, burgess of Edinburgh, 1467 (Neubotle, 299). William Tode witnessed sasine of the lands of Wolle, 1469 (Home, 22), and Johannes Tod witnessed a charter of the monastery of Scone to William Peblis, 1491 (Scon, p. 201). Thomas Tode, burgess of Edinburgh, who had a charter of the lands of Sherefhaul in 1483 (RD, p. 372), was the Sir Thomas Todde or Tod of Serefehaw (Sheriff-Hall) who guaranteed a loan from Henry VII of England to James, earl of Boughan and to himself, and with accomplices undertook to deliver "the K. of Scottis now reyning and his brother the Duke of Roos" to Henry in 1491 (Bain, IV, 1571). John Tod had a remission in 1536 for offences committed by him (RSS., II, 2002), George Tod had a charter of the office of serjeant of the 'shire' of Kinglassie, 1607 (RD., p. 502), and Hew Tod is in record as a 'browdenster' (embroiderer) in Edinburgh, 1611 (Edinb. Marr.). The family of Tod of Kirklands originally came from Musselburgh. Thomas Tod was clerk there in the early part of the seventeenth century (Fordell, p. 191). David Tood appointed councillor of Corsehill, 1710 (Corsehill, p. 245). At the present day most of the Tods are found on the West Coast, and the Todds in Edinburgh. William Todd first introduced printing into Thurso, Caithness, in 1825. Robert Elliot Tod, retired banker and yachtsman, appointed commissioner of emigration at New York, 1921, was born in Glasgow.

(Teutonic) 1 a nickname from the Fox [M. and Dialectal Northern English and scot. tod, a fox, a bush (the fox was called a tod from his brush): cp. Old Norse toddi (Dano-Norwegian tot), a tuft = Dutch tod, todde, a rag = Ger. zotte, a tuft] John le Tod.—Parl. Writs.

This tod, to rest him, he passit to ane craig . ..

Than [then] Tod Lowrie lukit quhair he couth lour [hide]—Henryson, Trial of the Fox.

My helpless lambs I trust them wi’ him; Oh, bid him save their harmless lives Fraedogs.an’ tods, an’ butchers’knives! Burns, Poor Mailie, 28-30.

2 Dweller at the Bush or Small Thicket [etym. as 1] At length within an yvie todde.—Spenser, Shep. Cal. (March).

An archaic and provincial name of the fox. The expression "wily tod" occurs in the writings of Wickliffe, and the word is made use of by B. Jonson. Before fox-hunting became a fashionable sport, and when churchwardens, acting under the Statute of 24. Hen. VIII., were accustomed to pay "xijd. for the head of every foxe," a class of men gained a precarious livelihood by hunting foxes and lesser vermin, and obtained the designations Todhunter and Todman, both of which have become well-known surnames.

Tod, a Scotch word for a fox.

Richard Tad, Normandy 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Adam, Real Tod, Engl. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum). Also a Celtic name.