Bonham
Usually a surname that came from the French bonhomme, “good man,” or from a place-name ending in -ham.
The #5,123 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 45,191 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Bonham is generally explained in two ways. One line of scholarship derives it from Old French bon homme or bonhomme, literally “good man,” a nickname that could be applied to a pious or harmless person and was also linked in medieval England with the friars minor. Another explanation treats it as a locational name, from a place-name with Old English -ham “homestead, village,” though no clear place called Bonham is securely identified in the older sources.
History
The name is recorded in medieval and early modern English sources, and nineteenth-century writers already noted the difficulty of deciding whether it was originally a nickname or a place-name. Some authorities preferred the French bonhomme explanation, while others thought it looked like a local surname with -ham. In practice, Bonham has long been established as an English surname and later spread to North America and elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older writers connected Bonham with the comic or respectful medieval sense of “the goodman,” especially in religious contexts.
From the historical record
“BONHAM Robert Bonnell, of Littleton, 159U: Wills at Chester (is45-i6x)1l p. 23. 1705. Married' w lUiam Faulkner ami Mary Boneal: St. Jad. Clerkenwell, iii. aaS. , ^ 1768. —Joseph Bonell and Mary Salter : St. Gea Han. Sq. L 173.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)