Broome
Usually a locational surname, referring to someone from a place called Broome or Brome, likely named for broom shrubs.
The #3,522 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,469 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Broome is generally explained as a habitational surname, taken from one of several English places called Brome or Broome. The place-name is usually linked to Old English "brōm", meaning the broom shrub, so the original sense was something like "the place where broom grows." Some 19th-century writers also suggested alternative explanations or family traditions, but the local-place origin is the most widely accepted.
History
The surname appears in English records and was especially associated in older sources with counties such as Norfolk, Suffolk, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, and Durham. Some families claimed a different or even Plantagenet-linked origin, but early genealogists generally treated the name as locational. The spelling Broome became one of several normal variants alongside Brome and Broom.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Several English place-names behind this surname were thought to be named for broom-covered ground, so the family name may originally point to a landscape feature rather than a village family line.
From the historical record
“.,,,. ....aSaltoDandSarah Broome ! Sc Geo. Han. So. i. ain. London, 33, D : UDB. iSaffolkL 1, o ; (Ehcx), 1, a i Philadelphia, 16, 8. Broonuiii. — Occup. v. (i)”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances