Oakenfield

Recorded as Oakenfeild, Oakenfield, Oakenfold, Oakenfall, Oakenfull, Okenfold, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is locational either from a now 'lost' medieval village, believed by the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley, to have been in Norfolk, or from some place such as Okeford, villages in Oxon and Dorset.The name would appear to mean 'The field of oaks' or in the pre7th century Olde English 'Oc atten felda'. Surnames from lost villages are a feature of the British surname listings, and it is estimated that over three thousand separate spellings do originate from such sources, with new ones being discovered almost weekly. This may be one. Locational surnames are those that were originally given either to the lord of the manor and his descendants, or to people who for whatever reason, left their original homes and moved elsewhere. This could be the next village or far away in London. The fuirther they travelled, the more likely that the surname would undergo spelling transposition, at a time when few could even write their name Early examples of the surname recording include Adam de Oakenfelde of Norfolk, in the Hundred Rolls of landowners in 1273, Sibella Ockenfeild at St Giles Cripplegate in the city of London on July 19th 1668, John Penny who married Elizabeth Oakenfull at St Georges chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster, on May 1st 1798, and William Oakenfold at St John The Baptist, Shoreditch, on July 26th 1868.