Worsfold

The surname Worsfold strikes many as unusual and in some areas of Britain is rare. The family often gets letters with the name misspelt as Worsfield (and stranger), which is a variant. To Elena and her Russian ear and experience the name sounds Jewish; Adrian was told that the name Worsfold has probable Dutch-German origins and it seems to be named after a place. Intuitively it sounds Boer! Alan Worsfold (no relation to Adrian, at least of any reasonable generations) suggests that the name could originate from Versfelde, a village near Wolfsberg in northern Germany. Perhaps Jordan von (from) Versfelde, a mercenary soldier, came to England under Edward IV and then to fight at Bosworth Field (1485, the War of the Roses) as that family name then disappearred until reappearing later. Adrian's father was from Mitcham, Surrey, and indeed the name remains concentrated south of London, where it first appeared with Robert Wersfelde (d. 1522) of Abynworth in Abinger parish in Surrey.



Sources

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hollow/3734/worsfold.html

Hanks, P., Hodges, F. (1988), A Dictionary of Surnames, Oxford.

Also see http://genforum.genealogy.com/worsfold/