Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from Dearham in Cumbria or Dyrham in Gloucestershire, named from Old English dēor ‘deer’ + hām ‘settlement’, ‘homestead’, or hamm ‘enclosure hemmed in by water’, ‘river meadow’. There are places in Norfolk called East and West Dereham, which have the same etymology. However, the present-day distribution of the surname suggests that they probably did not contribute to the surname.
  • Irish (mainly Dublin, Drogheda, and Cork) : of English origin, but MacLysaght takes this to be a variant of Durham.