There are various claims of lines of these families which originated in Normandy pre conquest or during the rule of the Norman Kings, but direct lineages are necessarily questionable since documentary evidence is thin.
Much more likely is that the name originates from several of the many places called Sandford. In the Ordnance Survey's gazetteer there appear to be 19 distinct places in Great Britain which are called Sandford. There are 7 distinct places called Sampford. I have placed a list of these further down this page. There is also just one Sandiford, but this appears to be the name of a house rather than a village. There are no places called Sanford.
Some of these places may not have existed in mediaeval times when surnames were often derived from the place where a family lived e.g. John of Sandford or John De Sandford or in Anglo Saxon usage John A Sandford. However it is clear that there could easily be around 10 to 20 places where unrelated families acquired the surnames Sandford or Sampford. The Sanfords could have arisen by dropping of the first 'd' as spelling became standardised.
The National Trust Surname web site which has published the results of analysis of surnames in the 1881 census and a 1998 survey (I think by Experian - a marketing company). Further down this page I have extracted relevant data for Sandford, Sandiford, Sanford, Sampford
Taking the 1998 data we see that Sandfords are in the majority and outnumber the Sanfords by 3 to 1:
| SURNAME | no of occurences |
|---|---|
| Sandford | 3166 |
| Sandiford | 1071 |
| Sanford | 926 |
| Sampford | 142 |
In the USA the pattern is quite different as shown in the following table where rate in names per million is compared
| SURNAME | rate per million in GB |
rate per million in USA |
|---|---|---|
| Sandford | 79 |
17 |
| Sandiford | 27 |
5 |
| Sanford | 24 |
245 |
| Sampford | 4 |
0 |
In GB there are about 3 sandfords for every sanford. In the USA there are are about 15 Sanfords for every Sandford. Relative to the Sanford/Sandford ratio in GB, the ratio is about 45 times higher in the USA! So it is hardly surprising so many Americans omit the first d when they spell my name.
There could be three principal processes giving rise to the marked difference of the Sandford to Sanford ratio in GB and the USA.
It should also be noted that there is a tendency among some genealogists to force modern spelling on their ancestral lines, so sometimes the original spelling is only to be found in the original documents rather than published fanily pedigrees.
We now look at the data on these names obtained from the National Trust Surname web site which has published the results of analysis of the 1881 census and a 1998 survey (I think by Experian - a marketing company).
| 1881 CENSUS | 1998 Survey |
|---|---|
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| 1881 CENSUS | 1998 Survey |
|---|---|
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| 1881 CENSUS | 1998 Survey |
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| 1881 CENSUS | 1998 Survey |
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