Given name & surname
Ashford
“from the ash-tree ford”
Ashford is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “from the ash-tree ford.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “from the ash-tree ford.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
Built from Old English æscet (“a clump of ash trees”) + ford.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1914. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ashford through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 502
- 502 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1988
- 18 babies
- 2025
- 9
- #8,327 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −8%
- Steady
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 9 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 8,327 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 18 in 1988. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 466 as a first name in 2020; 9,181 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ashford’s family of names
Ashford has a related form in Asheford. In English usage, Ashford has a related form in Ashenford. In English usage, Ashford as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Russian form Ашфорд.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Ashford, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Bradley
“from the broad field” · “from the wide meadow”
96% boys · 4% girls
Dynell
“a man of the sea”
91% boys · 9% girls
Ashbourne
“ash-tree”
88% boys · 12% girls
Ashurst
“ash-tree”
—
Eacott
“river, running stream”
—
Walding
“wood, forest”
—
Mansfield
“from the field near the small river”
>99% boys
Mannley
“from the hero's meadow; from the man's meadow”
>99% boys