Ketchum
An American surname whose exact origin is unclear, but it is most likely a variant of Ketcham or a name shaped by old English surname patterns.
The #4,213 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,725 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Ketchum is usually treated as a variant spelling of Ketcham, though the deeper source of that family name is not securely established. In older records, spellings often shifted freely, so Ketcham, Ketchum, and similar forms could represent the same family line. The name does not have a single agreed literal meaning in the older reference works, so its etymology is best described as uncertain rather than definite.
History
The name appears in 19th-century American records, especially in the northeastern United States and Canada, where spellings were often fluid from one generation to the next. It is best known through American bearers such as Hiram Ketchum, a New York lawyer. Because the form is closely tied to Ketcham, many modern family histories treat the two as related branches of the same surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname was already established enough in the 1800s to be noticed in collections of unusual American names, even though its root meaning was still unclear.
From the historical record
“Sherlfis, Constable, Marshall, Beadle, Crier, Sumner, Warning, Warner, Warn, Ses- sions, Dunn, Dunham, Dunning, Jewett, Sewall, Fee, Fines, Bail, Lien, Search, Ferriter, Nabb, Ketchum! ]\Ii-. Getum lives at Toronto, C.W. Mr. Fetchum appears in the Middlesex Records .... I do not add Lyes to this collection ; though…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom