Longford

This long-established name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called Langford in the counties of Bedfordshire, Devonshire, Essex, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. These places are mostly recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Langheforda, Langeford(e)" and "Longaford", and all but one share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the long ford", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "lang", long, with "ford", ford. Langford in Nottinghamshire is recorded as "Landeforde" in Domesday, and derives its name from the Olde English "landaford", boundary ford; the place is near the Lincolnshire border. The surname Langford may also derive from any one of the places in Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Middlesex, Shropshire and Wiltshire now called Longford, which are also so called from the Olde English "lang", long, and "ford". Locational surnames were used as a means of identification particularly by those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Examples of the name from London Church Registers include: the marriage of William Langford and Elizabeth Davis in Bermondsey, on June 14th 1582, and the christening of John, son of Roger Langford, on May 4th 1595, in Deptford. An early Coat of Arms granted to a family of the name is a paly of six silver and red, with a silver bend. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Osm' de Langeford, which was dated 1130, in the "Pipe Rolls of Wiltshire", during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.