Slateford

Recorded as Slatford, Slatfourd, Slautford, and Slateford, this is a locational surname of some confusion. It seems to be English, or at least of English origins, from a place called Slateford or similar, except that there is no such recorded place - in England. There are two Slateford's and both are in Scotland. One near to Edinburgh, the other near Ayr, and yet curiously the surname does not seem to be recorded in any Scottish names listings. This may be because being locational it is a 'from' surname, and therefore there may not be any recordings in or near to its original 'home'. Locational names were those generally given either to the local lord of the manor, and his descendants, or more often to people after they left their original homes and moved elsewhere. It was, and it often remains so, that the easiest way to identify a 'stranger', is to call him, or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came. Spelling over the centuries being at best erratic, and local dialects, very thick, lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. In this case examples of the surname are to be found in the diocese of Greater London as early as 1619, when John Slatford marrried Elizabeth Teape at St Margarets, Westminster, on February 9th of that year, and a century later another John, this time in the spelling as Slatfourd, was a witness at at St Andrews Holborn, on August 21st 1715.