The name of Seaforth is thought to come from the Old Norse sæ-fjord, sæ-ford, "sea inlet".

Another theory for the name of the area is that it was taken from Seaforth House, named after Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, who built the mansion in 1813 for his daughter and her husband, Sir John Gladstone, father of William Ewart Gladstone, four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

A permanent military presence was established in the borough with the completion of Seaforth Barracks in 1882.

[3] On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished[4] and the whole of Crosby became part of the new Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.

Seaforth is between Waterloo in the north, Litherland to the east, Bootle to the south, and the River Mersey and the Port of Liverpool to the west.