Where the Crawford name comes from

Crawford began as a place name, put together from the Old English crāwe, meaning crow, and ford. The Scots form of the first word is craw, and the places carrying the name include Crawford in South Lanarkshire, Crawford in Dorset and Crawford in Lancashire. The surname is habitational, taken from one of those places, and it most probably comes from the Scottish village. Early bearers include John de Crauford, recorded in Scotland between 1147 and 1160, and Nicolaus de Crauford, recorded in England in 1205. The spelling Craufurd survives as a variant, and Crawford is also the title of an earldom in the peerage of Scotland.

In some cases the surname is instead a variant of Crowfoot, a name that began as a nickname. In Gaelic it corresponds to the Scottish MacCreamhain and the Irish Mac Crábhagáin.