Mainly U.S.: transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of numerous places in England called Sandford, from Old English sand ‘sand’ + ford ‘ford’. Use as a given name honours Peleg Sanford, an early governor (1680–3) of Rhode Island.
German: 1. (South German) topographic name for someone who lived in an area of slippery ground, from slid, slit ‘smooth’, ‘slippery’. 2. German: habitational name from a place so named in East Prussia. 3. In some cases a variant of Schlitter2.