Frequency: (7151)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: habitational name from any of various places named Stanford, for example in Bedfordshire, Kent, and Norfolk, or Stanford Dingley in Berkshire, Stanford in the Vale in Oxfordshire, or Stanford le Hope in Essex, etc., all named from Old English stān ‘stone’ + ford ‘ford’.
FOREBEARS: An early bearer, Thomas Stanford of England, settled in Charlestown, MA, in the mid 17th century and started a family line that includes Leland Stanford (1824-93), the railroad developer who was governor of CA, a U.S. senator, and the founding benefactor of Stanford University.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
