Hames
An English surname that likely began as a place-name or nickname connected with “home” or a homestead.
The #9,003 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,984 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Hames is generally taken as a northern English form connected with the word for “home,” especially in place-name use. Some older writers linked it to Old Norse heimr, meaning “home” or “homestead,” while others suggested a related Norse descriptive sense. In practice, the name seems to have been attached to people from a place called Hames or to someone identified by residence near a home farm.
History
The name appears in medieval northern English records, including Cumbria, and later spread into other English-speaking areas. Historical surname dictionaries also record spellings such as Haimes, which may reflect the same name or closely related forms. The surname survived well enough to become established in Britain and later in North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century writer glossed Hames as a northern form of “home,” which shows how strongly the surname was associated with place and dwelling.
From the historical record
“Harness, Hameis, Hamlsh. — Bapt *the son of Hames' or 'Hemes/ No doubt a compound of OTH (eagle), as in Arnold, and cognate with Ernest A well-known Lincolnshire surname to-day, and found there six centuries ago.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)