Family name origins & meanings
- Origin unidentified. Perhaps an altered form of Shefford, an English habitational name from Shefford in Bedfordshire, or Great or East Shefford in Berkshire, all named with Old English scēap ‘sheep’ + ford ‘ford’. Alternatively, it could be an Americanized form of French Chuffard, probably derived from the dialect word chuffer ‘to call’, and hence a nickname for a (town) crier.