Family name origins & meanings
- Origin uncertain. It is probably a variant of English Bideford, habitational name from a seaport in North Devon, named with the Cornish river name B̄d, name of a local stream, + Old English ea ‘river’, + ford ‘ford’. Alternatively, it may perhaps be from Buddleford in Devon, so named with Old English boðl ‘dwelling’, ‘house’ + ford ‘ford’.