Boehm
A German surname often used as an ethnic name for a Bohemian, and sometimes as a spelling variant of Böhm.
The #3,340 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,774 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Boehm is the simplified spelling of German Böhm, a surname formed from Böhmen, the German name for Bohemia. In origin it meant “a Bohemian” or “someone from Bohemia,” the historic region now in the Czech Republic. The form without the umlaut is common in Anglicized records and in families that adapted the spelling after migration.
History
The name is especially common in German-speaking areas and among descendants of German emigrants in North America. Historical surname dictionaries often treat Boehm as one of several English-friendly spellings for Böhm. In older transliteration and indexing practice, the umlaut was frequently dropped and rendered as oe.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Bohemia was a well-known historical region in Central Europe, the surname could identify a person by place of origin even far from Bohemia itself.
From the historical record
“Bodzner. Forme de Baldomar. Boehm, Boemer. De BohCn.e Bôhme, Allemagne). Boesse. 1° Forme de Boisse; i" nom de lieu.”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)