Linn Boyd, for whom the county was named in 1860, was born in Tennessee in 1800 and came to western Kentucky in his youth. He served in the Kentucky Legislature from 1827 to 1831 and in Congress from 1835 to 1837 and from 1839 to 1855, including service as Speaker from 1851 to 1855. He was the author of the resolution to annex Texas. The Kentucky delegation proposed him for Vice President at the Democratic Convention in 1856, but the convention chose Breckinridge of Kentucky. Boyd was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1859 but died before taking office.