Newsom
An English locational surname meaning “dweller at the new houses” or from a place called Newsholme/Newsham.
The #3,218 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,522 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is tied to English place-names built from Old English elements meaning “new” and “house” or “houses.” The Harrison entry glosses it as “dweller at the new houses,” and the related spellings Newsome, Newsum, and Newsholme point to settlements with the same sense. In practice, it is a locational surname taken from places such as Newsome near Huddersfield and Newsholme in Yorkshire.
History
The name appears in medieval records in forms such as de Newsom and de Newsome, showing that it began as a place-based byname. The same family of spellings is found in Yorkshire and surrounding counties, where local place-name forms varied over time. In later centuries the surname spread beyond England, especially through emigration to North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers often grouped Newsom with several Yorkshire place-names that all mean, in effect, “new houses.”
From the historical record
“NEWSHOLME NEWSOM NEWSOME NEWSUM (Eng.) Dweller At the New Houses [O.E. niwe, new + Msum, dat. pi. oihus, a house]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)