Explore the Family Name Orford

The meaning of Orford

English: habitational name from any of the three places in England called Orford: in Suffolk, Stainton le Vale (Lincolnshire), and Warrington (Lancashire). The Suffolk placename is derived from Old English ōra ‘river bank’ + ford ‘ford, river crossing’. The Lincolnshire placename is most likely from an Old English personal name, Ēra or Ȳra, + ford. The Lancashire placename probably derives from Old English uferra ‘upper’ + ford.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Orford in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Orford saw a slight shift in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of this surname dropped by 4.23% from 104,819 in 2000 to 109,258 in 2010. In terms of sheer numbers, however, there was a slight increase of 2.53%, with 158 counts in 2000 rising to 162 in 2010. Despite this nominal rise in count, the proportion per 100k people represented by the Orford surname decreased by 16.67% over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#104,819	#109,258	-4.23%
Count	158	162	2.53%
Proportion per 100k	0.06	0.05	-16.67%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Orford

Ethnicity-wise, the majority of individuals bearing the Orford surname identified as White according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. There was a marginal decrease of 1.06% in this group, slipping from 87.97% in 2000 to 87.04% in 2010. During this same period, the Black community within this surname group experienced a significant increase of 27.46%, moving from 8.23% to 10.49%. The census data does not show any individuals with this surname identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, or American Indian and Alaskan Native during either 2000 or 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	87.97%	87.04%	-1.06%
Black	8.23%	10.49%	27.46%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%