Birmingham
A locational surname from the English city of Birmingham, originally meaning “the homestead or settlement of Beorma’s people.”
The #5,297 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,943 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Birmingham is a place-name surname taken from the English city of Birmingham in the West Midlands. The city name is usually explained from an Old English personal name, Beorma, plus the family/group suffix -ingas and the settlement element -ham, giving the sense of “the homestead of Beorma’s people.” In surname use, it simply marked someone who came from that place.
History
This is an English locational surname and not one of the many occupational or nickname-based surnames. The historic record includes medieval forms such as de Birmingham, and the name later spread well beyond the Midlands as people moved. It is also found in Ireland and in descendant lines associated with the Anglo-Norman period, including the Earls of Louth.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The place-name element -ham here does not mean “ham” as in cured meat; in Old English it meant a homestead or village.
From the historical record
“I. EHglish ami Wttsk Post Offiet Diruloria, Ar. Birmingham, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worces- tershire, 1879. Cambridge, Norfolk, and Suffolk, 1865. Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1S61-91.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances