This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a dialectual variant of the locational surname "Mundford", which derives from the place in Norfolk so called. The placename is recorded in 907 as "Mundefort", and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Mundeforda". The name means "Munda's ford", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Munda", a short form of names containing the element "mund" meaning "protection", with "ford", ford. The modern surname can be found as "Munford", "Maunford", "Manford" and "Mumford". Edward Maunford was christened in Norwich in August 1564 and on the 12th February 1597 one Mary Manford married Adam Adamson at the Church of St. Michael at Plea, Norwich. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Mundeford, which was dated 1247, The Cambridgeshire Feet of Fines, during the reign of King Henry III, The Frenchman, 1216 - 1272. 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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