# Stafford (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/stafford/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Irish |
| Meaning | “landing place” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈstæfə(ɹ)d/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Strafford |
| US babies named this | 2,850 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 2,850 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 6, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Old English stæþ (“landing place”) + ford. As a surname, occasionally derived from Irish (see Stocker).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 11 | 7,435 |
| 2012 | 12 | 6,978 |
| 2013 | 20 | 4,775 |
| 2014 | 11 | 7,484 |
| 2015 | 14 | 6,267 |
| 2016 | 12 | 7,085 |
| 2017 | 14 | 6,293 |
| 2018 | 16 | 5,743 |
| 2019 | 11 | 7,565 |
| 2020 | 14 | 6,249 |
| 2021 | 14 | 6,301 |
| 2022 | 18 | 5,406 |
| 2023 | 12 | 7,240 |
| 2024 | 14 | 6,427 |
| 2025 | 28 | 3,933 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 3 | 2,943 |
| 2005 | 3 | 3,849 |

## People named Stafford

- John Stafford Smith, British composer, church organist, and early musicologist (1750–1836)
- Stafford Repp, American actor (1918-1974)
- Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, British politician (1818–1887)
- Stafford L. Warren, American physician and radiologist (1896–1981)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.