This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called Great Linford and Little Linford in Buckinghamshire, and Lynford in Norfolk. The places in Buckinghamshire were originally one settlement, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Linforde", and in the 1175 Pipe Rolls of the county as "Lindford"; the placename here means either "the ford by the maple-trees or lime-trees", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "hlyn", maple, or "lind", lime-tree, with "ford", ford. The place in Norfolk, recorded as "Lineforda" in the Domesday Book and as "Lineford" in the 1197 Norfolk Pipe Rolls, is either "the ford where flax grew", or "ford on the road to Lynn", from the Old English "lin", flax, or the placename Lynn, meaning "lake", with "ford" as before. Lynford is south-east of Lynn. The marriage of Thomas Linford and Hannah Broadmeadow was recorded at St. Giles, Cripplegate, in London, on September 17th 1664. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey de Lineford, which was dated 1202, in the "Norfolk Feet of Fines", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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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