Birchfield
A surname most likely from a place-name meaning “birch tree field.”
The #8,551 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,152 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Birchfield is usually understood as an English locational surname built from Old English elements meaning “birch” and “field.” In plain terms, it likely referred to someone who lived by, or came from, a field where birch trees grew. The name may also have arisen from a minor place-name of the same type.
History
The form is less common than many English topographic surnames, but it follows a familiar pattern of surnames created from local landscape features. The 19th-century source excerpt associates it with a place-name sense, which fits the usual interpretation. In the United States it remains relatively uncommon, with spellings and family lines likely reflecting independent adoption from the same English place-name pattern.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Birchfield is the kind of surname that could be independently created in more than one place, because “birch + field” is a very natural English place description.
From the historical record
“BANCROFT ((g.)' ^^ofl or Field by river or sand bank. BARCLAY (S.), Birchfield. {v. Berkeley.) BARFUSS, von (©.), of Barefoot, as Count von Barfuss, of Prussia, explains it; for lie carries three bare feet in his Arms. BARING 03.), Bear's son. Barnard (©,), Bernhard ((3.),”
— Surnames