Rayford History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Rayford is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when a family lived beside a marsh or reedy ford. Rayford is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.

Early Origins of the Rayford family

The surname Rayford was first found in Devon where they held a family seat from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

Early History of the Rayford family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Rayford research. Another 64 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1561 and 1630 are included under the topic Early Rayford History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Rayford Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Rayford family name include Radford, Ratford and others.

Early Notables of the Rayford family

More information is included under the topic Early Rayford Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Rayford Ranking

In the United States, the name Rayford is the 4,414^th most popular surname with an estimated 7,461 people with that name. 1

Rayford migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Rayford surname or a spelling variation of the name include :

Rayford Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Emanuel Rayford, who arrived in Maryland in 1659 2

Rayford Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Julius Rayford, aged 23, arrived in New York in 1895 aboard the ship "State of California" from Glasgow via Londonderry 3

Rayford Settlers in United States in the 20th Century

M. C. Rayford, aged 19, arrived in New York in 1920 aboard the ship "Firmore" from Daiquiri, Cuba 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Rayford (post 1700) +

Caron Nimoy "Sugaray" Rayford (b. 1969), American electric blues singer and songwriter
Robert Rayford (1953-1969), American teenager who some scientists have claimed represents the earliest case of HIV/AIDS in North America
Floyd Kinnard Rayford (b. 1957), American Major League Baseball player who played for the Baltimore Orioles (1980, 1982), St. Louis Cardinals (1983) and again for the Baltimore Orioles (1984–1987)
Caesar Rayford (b. 1986), American football defensive end for the Tampa Bay Storm
William Rayford Price (1937-2023), American politician, Member in the Texas House of Representatives (1961-1973), Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives (1972-1973)
Walter Rayford Tucker III (b. 1957), American politician
Daniel Rayford McGehee (1883-1962), American Democratic Party politician, Member of Mississippi State Senate, 1924-28, 1932-34; U.S. Representative from Mississippi 7th District, 1935-47 4

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
Ellis Island Search retrieved 15th November 2022. Retrieved from https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-result
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 14) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html