Roycroft Family History

English (Cheshire and Lancashire): from Middle English rie ‘rye’ + croft ‘croft small plot of land’ (Old English ryge + croft). The surname may be topographic for someone who lived by a croft where rye was grown or habitational for someone from any of the minor places so named including five examples of Ryecroft in Yorkshire (in Bingley, Ossett, Rawmarsh, Tong, and Wooldale).

Ryecroft in Warmingham (Cheshire), Ryecroft Farm in Whittlesford (Cambridgeshire), and Ryecroft in Warslow (Staffordshire) are also notable examples of places associated with this surname. This form of the surname is now rare in Britain.