The English surname Fields, also found in Ireland and Scotland, is a topographic name for someone who lived on land which had been cleared of forest, but not brought into cultivation, from the Old English term feld meaning “pasture, or open country.”  The name was made popular by the Normans following the 11th Century Anglo Norman invasion. The earliest recordings are to be found in England where Hugo de la Felde is recorded in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Bedfordshire, England, in the year 1188. Amongst the very first settlers to the new colony of Virgina, America, was James Field. He arrived in the ship "Swan of London", in 1624. Today there are approximately 103,000 bearers of the name Fields in the United States.