The coat of arms of this family proclaim the legend of its origin which, like so many, involves a feat of strength which saves the life of a king. This version states that the first Baird saved William the Lion from a wild boar. The name appears to be territorial, from lands held by the family in Lanarkshire near the village of Biggar.Henry Debard witnessed a deed by Thomas De Hay between 1202 an 1228. Richard Baird received land at Meikle and Little Kyp in Lanarkshire, during the reign of Alexander III. Anderson states that Fergus Debard, John Bard and Robert Bard are supposed to be of the family of Baird of Kyp. The principal family of the name came to be that holding the lands of Auchmedden in Aberdeenshire, whose influence in that county was strengthened by marriage into the powerful Keith family, Earls Marischal of Scotland. James Baird, a younger son of the house of Auchmedden, became an advocate in Edinburgh and his son, John, was created a baronet and then a High Court judge under the title of ‘Lord Newbyth’. His splendid house of Newbyth in East Lothian still stands.The estate of Auchmedden passed into the hands of the Earls of Aberdeen and a pair of eagles which had regularly nested on the nearby crags left the area, fulfilling an ancient prophecy by Thomas the Rhymer, that ‘there shall be an eagle in the craig while there is a Baird in Auchmedden’. Lord Haddow married a younger daughter of William Baird of Newbyth, and the eagles returned. They reputedly fled again when the estate passed to another branch of the Gordon family. Sir David Baird was one of the leading soldiers of his time and saw action in India and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The name gained prominence again in the twentieth century through John Logie Baird, the pioneer of television. In 1926 he demonstrated the first television transmission, and he remained heavily involved in its development until his death in 1946.