Abrams
A patronymic surname meaning “son of Abram,” Abram being a short form of Abraham.
The #1,387 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,092 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Abrams is a patronymic formed from the given name Abram, itself a shortened form of Abraham. The name Abraham comes from Hebrew and is traditionally understood as meaning something like “father of a multitude,” though the shortened Abram was also used independently. In English surname use, Abrams simply marked a person as the son or descendant of someone called Abram.
History
The name appears in English records as a hereditary surname from the Middle Ages onward, alongside related forms such as Abraham, Abrahams, and Abramson. It is especially common in English-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish naming traditions, and it later became well established in the United States. Nineteenth-century surname writers consistently grouped Abrams with other Abraham-derived patronymics.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries often treated Abrams as just another variant in the large Abraham surname family rather than as a separate name.
From the historical record
“Abraham, Abrahams, A- brahamaon, Abram, Abrams, Abramaon.— (I) Bapt. ' theaon of Abraham.' A popular font-name io the 13th cenlury; v. Abbot In the Fen district especially tlic entries are common. The instances”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances