In the pre 17th century, the town of Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire apparently formed part of the Parish of Rochdale - in Lancashire! Within the Huddersfield boundary lay a spot called "Grene-royd", which is now probably the area known as "Greenhead" on the west or Lancashire side of the town. The original translation being "the green (grene) valley" (royd), although "green" would have referred to a "new" area cleared for agricultural use, rather the "green" as in colour. This type of location occurred when an area was "enclosed" and the inhabitants prevented from using the common grazing. They then had no choice but to seek new homes elsewhere, and in doing so they took (or were given) as a surname the name of their former village. This system combined with local dialects and uncertain spelling lead to variant spellings which often bore little in common with the original village. Examples of the surname recording include that of Easter Greenroade christened at Rochdale Parish Church on June 27th 1607, and Edmund Grindrod, a witness at the christening of his son James, also at Rochdale on September 26th 1667. Abenezar Grindrod was christened on 2nd February 1692, one, Mary Grindrod married Robert Milne on 6th June 1694, As a point of interest the Cheshire Wills list of 1626 refer to one William Riding, formerly living at Gridrod, Huddersfield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Rychard Grenerowde, which was dated 1541, in the Pipe Rolls of Salford, Lancashire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Good King Hal", 1509 - 1547. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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