Why do people's surnames sometimes have -ham at the end?

does it mean something?

Answer #1

“Ham” is Old English for home… meaning homestead. It denotes a place name.

When someone would move from one town to another… he could distinguish himself by describing where he was from. For example… if Jack moved to Newbury from Bentham… one way of distinguishing himself from all the other “Jacks” in Newbury would be to add the designation… Jack of Bentham.

This denominating procedure later evolved into the English surname customs. Many of which are based on place names: “bury” “burrough” “ton” “wick” “field” “thorpe” “moore” “warren” “”wold” and so on.

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Why do people's surnames sometimes have -ham at the end?

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