Barham
A locational surname meaning “from Barham,” originally taken from one of several English places of that name.
The #5,547 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,273 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Barham is a locational surname from places called Barham in England, especially in Kent, Suffolk, and Huntingdonshire. The place-name is generally understood as meaning “homestead” or “farmstead” associated with a personal name or an old topographic element, though the exact early form can vary by county and source. In surname use, it simply marked someone as being from, or connected with, one of those places.
History
The surname appears in medieval records and was borne by families associated with Barham, Kent, at an early date. 19th-century writers also linked one Kentish family to a Robert de Berham, but that kind of pedigree note should be treated cautiously. The name spread as people moved away from the place and adopted the local-name form as a hereditary surname.
Origin
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Fun fact
Because there were multiple English places called Barham, the surname can independently arise from more than one county, not just a single ancestral village.
From the historical record
“BARGrE. Perhaps an mu sign. BARHAM. The family were lords of Barham, in Kent, at an early period, and according to Pliilipot, tlie Kentish gene- alogist, descendants of Robert de Berham, son of Richard Fitz-Urse, and brother of one of the assassins of Thomas ii Beckett. BARING. The peer and the baronet descend from…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom