(origin: Local) First assumed by the proprietor of the lands and barony of Crawford, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The extreme ancestor of the ancient family of Crawford, in Scotland, was Reginald, youngest son of Alan, the fourth Earl of Richmond. He seems to have accompanied David the First to the north, and to have received extensive grants of land in Strath Cluyd, or Clydesdale, whence his immediate descendants adopted the name of Crawford, then forming one of the largest baronies in Scotland, and signifying in Gaelic "The pass of blood," from cru, bloody, and ford, a pass or way, as commemorative, probably, of some sanguinary conflict between the Aborigines and the Roman invaders. The name has been derived by others from crodh and port, pronounced cro-fort, signifying "a sheltering place for cattle."

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

CRAWFORD. A parish of Lanarkshire, and several otlier places in North Britain. Sir Reginald de Craufurd, sheriff of Ayrshire in 12"J6, seems to have been the common ancestor of many branches of the family. The name \vas anciently written Craufuird.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.