Butterfield
A medieval English place-name surname meaning “the field where buttercups grew” or possibly “butter field,” depending on the local place-name behind it.
The #3,152 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,922 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Butterfield is usually explained as a locational surname from a minor place-name in northern England. The second element is straightforwardly “field,” while the first has been interpreted in different ways: either as a reference to buttercups or yellow flowers, or as the word “butter” used in a place-name. The 19th-century surname books treat it as coming from a small place in the West Riding of Yorkshire, though they also note related local forms elsewhere in the north.
History
The surname is recorded in English surname reference works as a northern English name, especially associated with Yorkshire. It later spread into Lancashire and other parts of England, and is now established in the wider English-speaking world. Because the name comes from a small local place-name, multiple nearby origins may have been conflated in early scholarship.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname scholars especially linked Butterfield with the West Riding of Yorkshire, where it was already considered a familiar local name.
From the historical record
“g^ve (Skeat*s Etym. Diet ' Carve *). Butterfield.— Local, <of But- terfield ,' some small spot, seemingly in W. Rid. Yorks. The surname has crossed the border into co. Lane., where it is to-day &miliar.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)