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The surname
CLIFTON
comes from old English roots, "Our
"Cloughts" represent the narrow fissures betwixt the
hills. From the same root we owe our "Clives",
"Cliffes", and "Clowes", not to mention our
endless "Cliffords", "Clifton","Clevelands".
Any prominence of rock or earth was a "cop" or
"cope" from Saxon "cop", a head. Thus in
the "Proverbs of Hending," is is said: "When
the coppe is fullest, then the hair is fairest."
(Excerpt from the book
English Surnames)
According to English history the
CLIFTON
name originated
from a small village located near the town of Nottingham. The town was so
named because of its location.
"Clifton of Clifton,
Nottinghamshire
Created Baronet, May 22, 1611
Of this family, Gervafe Holles, Esq; a laborious
antiquary, observes, that they took their surname for Clifton, a village
about two miles distant from Nottingham, which, in its Saxon organs, signifies
a village located upon a rock of shelving ground, as Sir W. Dugdale rightly
observes, "and upon a prominence is this seated (yet in fertile soil) at
the foot of which the Trent runs; where the Clifton have a noble seat, from
which, ascending by many steps, we rest upon the top, in a fair bowling-green,
that yields a most pleasant prospect, overlooking the Trent, the town of
Nottingham, the vale of Belvoir, and part of the forest of Sherwood. They
derive them sevles from Alvaredus de Clifton, a Knight, said to be living
in the time of William
Perverell." (Excerpt from the "Book
of English Barons")
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