Fordham
A place-based surname meaning “from Fordham,” originally someone from one of several English villages of that name.
The #6,930 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 63,817 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Fordham is a locational surname taken from places called Fordham in England, especially in Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Norfolk. The place-name is usually understood as Old English ford meaning “ford” and ham meaning “homestead,” “village,” or “estate,” so the literal sense is something like “settlement by the ford.” In surname use, it identified a person who had moved away from that village or whose family came from there.
History
Medieval records in the excerpts show forms such as de Fordham in the 13th and 14th centuries, which fits the usual pattern of locational surnames formed after people left their home parish. The surname remained established in eastern England and later spread more widely, including to London and overseas. Because there were several places called Fordham, the surname could arise independently in more than one county.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname points to at least three different English villages named Fordham, so not every Fordham family necessarily came from the same place.
From the historical record
“London, 119, 3 ; New York, 131, 4. FordhAm,— Local, ' of Ford- ham ' : (i) a parish in co. Cam- bridge ; (3) a parish in Co. Essex, six miles from Colchester; (3) a parish in co. Norfolk, near Down- ham Market.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances