U.S. Cities Ending in "-grad" or "-ford": 20+ Examples

Suffixes Meaning "Fort" or "River Crossing"

-grad (Slavic: "city/fort") and -ford (Old English: "river crossing") appear in dozens of U.S. place names. Here are verified incorporated cities/towns:

Ending in "-grad"

• Bagdad, Florida (Santa Rosa County) — named for Baghdad, Iraq (1880s lumber boom).
• Bagdad, Kentucky (Shelby County)
• Bagdad, Arizona (Yavapai County) — company town (copper).
• Petersburg, Virginia (independent city) — -burg, not -grad, but often confused.

Note: True "-grad" (Cyrillic град) is rare in US; most "Bagdad" transliterations. No incorporated "Somethinggrad" except Baghdads.

Ending in "-ford" (River Crossing)

• Bedford, Indiana (Lawrence County) — limestone capital.
• Bedford, New Hampshire (Hillsborough County) — Manchester suburb.
• Bedford, Texas (Tarrant County) — DFW mid-cities.
• Bedford, Virginia (Bedford County) — former town, now town again.
• Bradford, Pennsylvania (McKean County) — historic oil.
• Bradford, Vermont (Orange County)
• Branford, Connecticut (New Haven County) — shoreline.
• Brentford, South Dakota (Spink County) — tiny.
• Bristol, Connecticut — -ol variant.
• Crawford, Nebraska (Dawes County) — near Fort Robinson.
• Dexter, Michigan — -ter.
• Eastford, Connecticut (Windham County)
• Frankfort, Kentucky (capital) — -fort.
• Guilford, Connecticut (New Haven County)
• Hartford, Connecticut (capital) — hart (stag) ford.
• Hereford, Texas (Deaf Smith County) — cattle capital.
• Litchfield, Connecticut — -field.
• Medford, Massachusetts (Middlesex County) — mead (meadow) ford.
• Medford, Oregon (Jackson County) — Rogue Valley hub.
• Milford, Connecticut (New Haven County) — mill ford.
• Milford, Delaware (Kent/Sussex)
• Milford, Michigan (Oakland County)
• Milford, New Hampshire (Hillsborough County)
• Milford, Pennsylvania (Pike County)
• Oxford, Mississippi (Lafayette County) — Ole Miss.
• Oxford, Ohio (Butler County) — Miami Univ.
• Radford, Virginia (independent city) — Radford Univ.
• Rockford, Illinois (Winnebago County) — 2nd largest IL city.
• Sanford, Florida (Seminole County) — Orlando Sanford Intl Airport.
• Sanford, Maine (York County)
• Sanford, North Carolina (Lee County)
• Schuylerville, New York — -ville.
• Springford, Pennsylvania (unincorporated).
• Stanford, Kentucky (Lincoln County) — stone ford.
• Stratford, Connecticut (Fairfield County) — Sikorsky, Shakespeare festival.
• Stratford, New Jersey (Camden County)
• Stratford, Texas (Sherman County)
• Telford, Pennsylvania (Bucks/Montgomery)
• Wallford, North Carolina (unincorporated).
• Waterford, Connecticut (New London County)
• Waterford, New York (Saratoga County)
• Waterford, Wisconsin (Racine County)
• Watford, North Dakota (McKenzie County) — Bakken oil.
• Westford, Massachusetts (Middlesex County)
• Westford, Vermont (Chittenden County)

Why So Many "-ford"?

English settlers named river crossings after hometowns (Hartford, Oxford, Stratford) or features (Milford, Medford, Hereford). The suffix proliferated westward.

Correction to original list: Several entries (Bagdad, Bedford, Bradford, Crawford, Douglas, Headland, Howard, Menard, Redford, Sanford, Schofield, Stanford, Stratford, Waterford) end in -ford or -grad (Bagdad). Others (Brodhead, Concord, Douglas, Headland, Howard, Menard, Schofield, Stanford) do not end in -ford/-grad. This list corrects that.