As with many Old English, Old Scandinavian and Old Germanic compound names, which have no obvious relation to each other, such as the Old Norse 'Arkle', composed of 'arn', eagle, and 'ketil', cauldron, many modern 'double-barrelled' names are the result of a marriage between two families in the past, and have no intrinsic meaning, although each element has its own separate meaning and derivation. In this instance 'Grafton' is a locational surname of Anglo-Saxon origin from any of the numerous places so called, in Cheshire, Northants, Wiltshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire, among others. The placename means "the settlement in the grove", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century 'graf', grove, and 'tun', settlement, enclosure. The surname from this source is first recorded as William de Graftona, in the Pipe Rolls of Leicestershire of 1130. 'Herbert' derives from the Germanic personal name composed of the elements 'heri', army, and 'berhy', bright, famous, which was introduced into Britain by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Herebert, which was dated 1206, The Dorsetshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King John, known as 'Lackland', 1199-1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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