Graham
A Scottish surname that most likely began as a place name from Lincolnshire, later becoming one of Scotland’s best-known family names.
The #120 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,535 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken from an English place name, most often linked to Graham in Lincolnshire or to Grantham in older scholarly explanations. The place-name element is usually understood as English in origin, and the surname means, in effect, someone who came from that locality. The old Scottish form was often written Gramme or Graham, and later tradition tied the name to an early settler in Scotland, William de Graham.
History
The name became established in Scotland by the 12th century, associated with William de Graham, and it later developed into one of the major Scottish surnames. Some older writers also repeated a legendary origin from a much earlier heroic figure, but that explanation is not accepted by the historical sources here. In modern usage, Graham is common in both Scotland and the wider English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower notes that the name was long written interchangeably as Graham and Gramme in Scottish usage.
From the historical record
“GRAPES. An Innkeeper's sign. GRAHAM. The name h;>s always been written interchangeably with Gramme — the Scottish oi'thography. The earliest tracea- ble ancestor, (for we reject of course the fifth-century hero Greme — See Gramie,) is AVilliam de GRAHA,\r, wlio settled in Scot- land early in the XII. century. The…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom