This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Clifford,' parishes in the Dioceses of Hereford, and Gloucestershire and Bristol; also a township in the parish of Bramham, near Leeds, Yorkshire.

Margaret de Clifford, Oxfordshire. 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Roger de Clifford, Wiltshire, ibid.

John de Clyfford, Glouc, ibid.

Isabella de Clyfforth, 1379: ibid.

1616. Matthias Clifford and Jane Tibballs: Marriage Lic. (London).

(English) belonging to Clifford, or Dweller at the Ford by the Cliff [Old English clif + ford]

This English name is in Ireland mainly the anglicized form of Ó Clumháin q.v. sub Cluvane

(English) One who came from Clifford (ford at a cliff), the name of several places in England; dweller at the shallow river crossing with the steep bank.

An evident interpolation; for “though the family of Clifford undoubtedly came over with the Conqueror, yet the name was only assumed, about the time of Henry II., from the castle of that name in Herefordshire, by Walter, son of Richard Fitz-Pons.”—Sir Egerton Brydges. See Pounce.

The noble family, surnamed from Clifford (their castle and lands in co. Hereford, which they acquired in marriage in the XII. cent.), came from Normandy with the Conqueror, and then bore the name of Fitz Pons. They claimed lineal descent from Richard, Duke of Normandy, the grandfather of William I. In charters, the name is latinized Do Clivo Forte.

Local. The ford or way by the cliff.

Or De Pons. About 920 Manno and Pontius, Barons or Princes of Pons in Saintonge, nobles of Gothic race, were benefactors to Savigny Abbey (Bouquet, Hist. Franç. xi. 200), and in 1079 Pontius or Ponce, Prince of Pons, granted a church to the abbey of Cormery, in presence of his sons Anselm, Garnier, and Philip-Milo (Gall. Christ. xii. 14). From the first descended the Lords of Pons in Aquitaine, one of the most powerful families in France, who are frequently mentioned in history. Ponce had also other sons who went to England, of whom Drogo Fitz-Ponce and Walter Fitz- Ponce held important baronies in 1086 (Domesd.). Their younger brothers were: 1. Richard Fitz-Ponce. 2. Osbert Fitz-Ponce, ancestor of the Veseys and Burghs. The names of these sons are men­tioned by Henry I. in his charter confirming their gifts to Malvern Priory (Mon. Angl. i. 366); and from the Monasticon (i. 365, ii. 876) it appears that they also bore the name of ‘Pontium,’ or des Pons, from which it appears that they were sons of Ponce ‘of Pons.’ Richard Fitz-Ponce witnessed, with Bernard de Neumarche, a charter of Brecknock Priory c. 1120 (Jones, Hist. Brecon. ii. 75), and was ancestor of the De Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland, as is generally known; and from a remote junior branch of this family descended Thomas Clifford, who became a Roman Catholic; was a leading member of the Cabal, t. Charles II., and was created Baron Clifford.

A location name in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Yorkshire.

The Cliffords of Bobbing were an ancient Kentish family who held the manor of Shorne during the 15th century; they were descended from the Herefordshire Cliffords of Clifford Castle, who are still represented in the county of Gloucester (H.).