Rutherford (name)

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The surname Rutherford, also Rutherfurd, is a Scottish and Northern English habitational surname deriving from a place in the Scottish borders region near Roxburgh.[1] It is also a given name.

Origin

Rutherford is a Scottish border clan name. The name comes from a place-name in Roxburghshire on the south bank of the river Tweed, midway between Melrose and Kelso. A village there, then called Rothersfurth, was burnt and razed by an English army in 1545 and has disappeared from the map.

The origin of the Rutherford name is thought to have been the Old English "rother" meaning “cattle” and "ford", “a river crossing.”

Or according to another theory, the name can be traced back to the West Flemish name Ruddervoorde, a community now part of Oostkamp.[2]

Another theory of the origin of the name states that a man by the name Ruther carried an ancient king of Scots over the River Tweed. Eventually, a descendant of the king gave land to the family that carried his forefather over the river and when surnames were adopted, Rutherford came into being.[3]

Surname

Notable people with the surname include:

Given name

Notable people with the given name include:

See also

  • Edward Rutherfurd, nom de plume of Francis Edward Wintle, author of historical fiction

References

  1. ^ "Rutherford Name Meaning & Rutherford Family History at Ancestry.com". ancestry.com.
  2. ^ "Flemish Roots". 4t.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11.
  3. ^ "Origin and History of the Name Rutherford". mathoni.com.
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