Bigham
An English surname most likely from a place-name, probably a Staffordshire local name in the Bingham/Bigg- variant family.
The #6,193 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,882 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bigham is best treated as a locational surname. Nineteenth-century surname scholarship connects it with an English place-name form, and Barber specifically notes it as a local name from Staffordshire. The ending -ham is the common Old English element meaning "homestead" or "enclosure," though the exact first element is not certain here. The surname may therefore reflect someone who came from a place with a name of that type, or a spelling variant developed from a related local surname such as Bingham or Bigg.
History
The surname is documented in British surname dictionaries and appears as a variant or related form alongside Bingham and Bigg. It is relatively uncommon compared with those better-known names. The name also appears in later North American records, reflecting ordinary emigration and spread from the British Isles.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Barber’s dictionary explicitly flags Bigham as a local surname from Staffs., a nice clue that this rare name probably points back to a specific English place association.
From the historical record
“See Bigg Bigham. See Bingham Bignall, Bignell. A loc. n., Staffs. British Surnames”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)