Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from a place in Devon so named, from Old English gafol ‘tax’, ‘toll’ + ford ‘ford’. The surname is now not found in England.
- Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Galfert, from a Germanic personal name based on Old High German galan ‘to sing’, or of Gelfort, Gelfert, or Gelfart(h), from a Germanic personal name composed with Middle High German gelfen ‘to cry’, ‘to boast’ or gelf ‘scorn’.