WORSFOLD
Worsfold is an English surname that originated in the southern counties of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It is traditionally understood to be a locational name drawn from a now lost village or hamlet within these counties.
The derivation of the name is from the Old English elements worð, meaning an enclosure or settlement, and fold, a fenced area for livestock. Consequently, Worsfold most plausibly first served as a topographic designation for a person who lived near or was employed in such a livestock enclosure.
During the fourteenth century a number of small villages were cleared to make room for the growing importance of sheep pastures. The inhabitants of these depopulated settlements dispersed, leaving only their surnames as a trace of the places they had left. The recurrence of the surname in Surrey, Sussex and Kent is therefore regarded as part of this phenomenon.
An alternate ancient form of the name, Worsfield, is recorded as describing a “draught cattle field” and is believed to derive from the pre‑seventeenth‑century Old English word werf, meaning draught cattle, and feld, meaning field.
A surviving documentary instance of the surname is the christening of an Alice Worsfold at Ockley in Surrey on 8 November 1549. This record demonstrates the continued use of the name into the mid‑sixteenth century.
The family was granted a coat of arms that is blazoned as follows: a green shield bearing three golden vine leaves; the crest consists of a green wyvern, regarded traditionally as a guardian of spirit and knowledge.
The earliest known spelling of the family name appears to be that of Robert Werefelde, dated to about 1510 at Abinger in Surrey, during the reign of King Henry from 1509 to 1547.
Typical given names associated with the Worsfold surname
Male
- Chris
- Christopher
- David
- Ian
- John
- Leslie
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Elizabeth
- Gillian
- Jennifer
- Linda
- Lisa
- Louise
- Margaret
- Mary
- Nicola
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Worsfold in...
Braille
⠺⠕⠗⠎⠋⠕⠇⠙
Morse
.-----.-......-.---.-..-..
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,883 people named Worsfold in the UK. That makes it roughly the 4,421st most common surname in Britain. Around 29 in a million people in Britain are named Worsfold.
