# Gifford (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/gifford/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 19,514 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,834 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 15,822 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.8% (19,171 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Two main origins: * Habitational surname for someone from Broughton Gifford, from the Old English personal name *Gydda + -ing (“belonging to”) + ford (“ford”). * From Old French giffard (“chubby-cheeked, bloated”), perhaps a nickname for a big eater.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Gifford in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 92% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Gifford in the United States.

## People named Gifford

- Sanford Robinson Gifford, American painter (1823–1880)
- Frances Gifford, American actress (1920-1994)
- Frank Gifford, American football player, television sportscaster (1930-2015)
- Barry Gifford, American novelist, poet, screenwriter, biographer, editor (born 1946)
- Robert Swain Gifford, American artist (1840-1905)
- Edward Winslow Gifford, American anthropologist
- Cassidy Gifford, American actress
- Oscar S. Gifford, American politician (1842-1913)
- Alan Gifford, British actor (1911-1989)
- Elizabeth Peckham, American teacher, taxonomist, ethologist, arachnologist, and entomologist

## Similar surnames

Gafford, Goforth, Gabbard, Gebhardt, Gebhart, Gabbert, Gephart, Gobert, Gebhard, Gebert.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.