Tilford
Masculine
Tilford is the name of a Surrey village on the River Wey, carried to America as a surname and given to sons in the nineteenth century. It is a place with two medieval bridges and an oak that a famously hard-to-please traveler called the finest tree he had ever seen.
How old is the name Tilford?
Tilford first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Tilford alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 200 people named Tilford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tilford most popular?
Tilford peaked in 1883, reaching #892 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Tilford
Tilford sits where two branches of the River Wey meet in Surrey, and its two medieval stone bridges are traditionally credited to the Cistercian monks of nearby Waverley Abbey, the first house of their order in England. In the 1820s the radical journalist William Cobbett rode through on the travels he published as Rural Rides and wrote that the great oak on the village green was the finest tree he had ever seen. The place name became a surname, the surname crossed the Atlantic, and American families gave it to sons as a first name in the nineteenth century.
Meaningscholars disagree
A ford belonging to a man called Tila, or a good ford
The second half is Old English ford, a river crossing. The first is read either as a personal name, Tila, or as the Old English word til, 'good, useful'.
Pronouncing Tilford
TIL-ferd
Two syllables, stress on the first.
Nicknames for Tilford
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 192229 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #892reached in 1883
- Change vs 1978
- −28.6%5 in 1988, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Tilfords among us
people named Tilford are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Tilford sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A real English place name with a documented history.
- Spelled exactly as it sounds.
- Rare as a first name, so a Tilford is unlikely to meet another.
- As a surname-first name it will sometimes be taken for a last name on forms.
- It reads as a nineteenth-century name, which suits families who like that feel.
- People may mishear it as Telford or Tillman.
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Tilford
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Tilfords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Tilford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tilford in 2025?
- Tilford is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Tilford with classmates?
- Tilford will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tilford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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