This name is of English locational origin from a place in Gloucestershire called Batsford. The place was recorded in Anglo Saxon Chronicles A.D.716 as Baeccesore and as Beceshore in the Domesday Book of 1066. The name means "Baecci's slope" from the Olde English personal name (of uncertain origin), plus "ora" a shore or slope. A smaller place called Batsford exists in the parish of Warbleton, Sussex. Here the name is taken to mean "Boetel's Ford". Battisford in Suffolk also gave its name to several bearers. Alternate spellings of the name have included de Bateford (1202), de Batesford (1273) and de Batisford (1335). The name Batsford is well recorded in London Church Records for the 16th Century onwards. On June 23 1584, a Robert Batsford was baptised in St. Mary the Virgin, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de (of) Batesford. which was dated 1182, The Pipe Rolls of Suffolk. during the reign of King Henry II, The Builder of Churches, 1154 - 1189. 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.