Wickham
A habitational surname from any of several English places called Wickham, meaning a village or dwelling near a wick or settlement.
The #4,814 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 42,092 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Wickham is a habitational surname taken from one of several English places called Wickham. The name is usually explained from Old English wick, a settlement or dwelling place, plus ham or hamm, a homestead, enclosure, or meadow; in older scholarship this was sometimes glossed more loosely as a village or enclosed place. The basic sense is therefore “dwelling by the settlement” or “settlement enclosure.”
History
The surname appears independently in more than one county because there are many places called Wickham in England, including in Kent, Hampshire, Essex, Berkshire, Suffolk, and elsewhere. Nineteenth-century surname writers also noted early spellings such as Wicham in Anglo-Saxon charters. Because the name is place-based, different Wickham families do not necessarily share a single ancestor.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Wickham is one of those surnames that can point to several different villages at once, not just one family home.
From the historical record
“an Inq. ad q. Damn, for Berks A.D. 1314-15. WICKHAM (Eng.) Bel. to Wickham (common); or Dweller at the Wick-Meadow or -Enclosure [v. under Wick, and -f O.E. ham{m\ Thus Wickham in Berks, Hants, Essex, and Kent occurs as Wicham in charters of the A.-Saxon period. WICKIN I an assim. form of Wilkin, q.v. 2 for WIcken…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)