Delafield Family History

English (London and Devon) and Irish: of Anglo-Norman origin, a habitational name probably for someone from Field in Leigh (Staffordshire) named with Old English feld ‘expanse of open land’. It was evidently known originally as ‘The Field’, whence the partly Anglo-Norman French rendering of the surname as de la Feld ‘of The Field’. In the 15th century in Ireland, this surname was increasingly used in its shortened form Field, but a branch of the family that had moved back to England in the 14th century retained the French prefix.

English (North Yorkshire): in North Yorkshire, the name seems to have a different origin from the first. It could be a nickname from Middle English dil(e) ‘dull, stupid’ + Middle English ful foul ‘bird’ (wild or domestic), but the absence of evidence for a Middle English surname with this compound leaves the explanation uncertain.

Alternatively, it might be a name altered by folk etymology of Delavale, the surname of an aristocratic family which from the 11th century held Callerton and Seaton Delaval (in Earsdon on the Northumberland border). The family came from La Val in Marne, France, and the surname itself is a variant of Laval with fused preposition de.