Recorded in many forms including Payford, Pafford, Pifford, Pyford and others, this is an English surname. There does not appear to be any place name which directly corresponds with any of the surviving surnames, except possibly the hamlet of Pyrford transating as 'Pear tree ford', near Guildford in Surrey. As the surname is well recorded in surviving church registers lists of the diocese of Greater London, this village may well be the place of origin. Locational surnames by their very nature 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their origina;l villages to move somewhere else. Spelling over the centuries being at best indifferent, and local accents vey thick, often lead, as with this name to the development of 'sounds like' forms. Early examples of the surname recordings include Tom Pyford at the church of St Mary Magdalene in the city of London, on September 26th 1580, Elizabeth Pifford at Putney, on March 9th 1783, and Joseph Pafford a witness at St Saviours Southwark, on May 15th 1803.