Lougheed, as a family name, is relatively young. The family is an offshoot of the Scottish Boyd family that settled (largely) in County Sligo, Ireland in the mid 1700's.
The story goes that one William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, head of the Boyds of Scotland, switched his allegiance in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 to the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart. Bonnie Prince Charlie, as he was known, was on the losing end of his rebellion to gain the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Boyd himself was taken prisoner at the Battle of Culloden, and subsequently beheaded on Tower Hill in 1746. His titles were declared forfeit.
Several of the Boyds - it is unclear exactly how many - decided this was a pretty good time to not be a Boyd in Scotland, and emigrated to Ireland. They changed their names to "Lougheed", which is traditionally translated as "Loch-heed" or "head of the lake", generally taken to refer to themselves settling at the head of a lake in Ireland.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a number of members of the family emigrated from County Sligo to Ontario, Canada, in some cases going through the United States. (See the "Progenitors" section below.) From Ontario, the families spread west and south, with contingents of the family resident in the 5 western Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario) and in the United States. There are still Lougheeds in Ireland, as well as some in Australia, and may be others scattered throughout the world.
There are several variations on the Lougheed name. The most well-known would be "Lockheed", from the Lockheed Corporation (now known as Lockheed Martin), though there is no evidence of family members actually using that name - the founders were named "Loughead," which is likely the largest variation by number of people. Another variation seen is "Loughheed".
Most pronounce the name "Law-heed", after the traditional Scottish pronunciation (which itself actually trends more to "Loch-heed", the Scottish guttural ch on the first syllable), though some prefer the English "Low-heed".
There are a number of known progenitors of the Lougheed name in various different areas of the world. Most of these are traceable to Ireland (usually County Sligo), but the exact relationships between them in Ireland are in many cases unknown.
In Canada, these include:
In Australia: