Double-barrelled surnames, usually created following a marriage between two families, have no overall meaning as a unit, but the separate parts have their own meaning and derivation. The distinguished name of Drew, initially introduced into Britain following the Norman Conquest of 1066, has a number of distinct sources. The primary source is the Old German male given name "Drogo", from the Old Saxon "(gi)drog", ghost, phantom, borne by one of the sons of Charlemange. Popular throughout France in the forms "Dreu(s), Dru" and "Driu", the name appears as "Drogo" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and subsequently as "Driu" and "Dru" in 12th Century documents relating to the Danelaw. The Anglo-Norman nickname "dru", from the Old French "dru", favourite, lover, is a further source of the surname, which may also be locational in origin from any of the various places in France called Dreux, so called from a Gaulish tribal name "Durocasses". In 1327, one John Drew was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Cambridgeshire. Clifton is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name from any of the several places in England named with the Olde English pre 7th Century "clif", cliff, and "tun", enclosure, settlement. One Gilbert de Clifton was recorded in the 1273 Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire, and on October 31st 1568, Mary Clifton and Thomas Archdale were married at St. Antholin's, Budge Row, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph Drue, which was dated 1188, in "Documents pertaining to Bury St. Edmunds", Suffolk, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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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