Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from Dunford Bridge, a hamlet near Penistone, West Yorkshire, so called from the river Don (a British name, possibly meaning ‘river’) + Old English ford ‘ford’, or from Dunford House in Methley, West Yorkshire, which is named in Old English as ‘Dunn’s ford’ (see Dunn 2). Reaney suggests that the name may also have arisen from places called Durnford in Somerset and Wiltshire. (Great) Durnford in Wiltshire was named in Old English as ‘hidden ford’ (dierne + ford).