Barnum
An Americanized form of Barnham, a place-name surname ultimately meaning “the homestead of Beorn/Barn.”
The #5,692 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 50,697 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Barnum is generally treated as a reduced or Americanized form of Barnham, a surname taken from one of several English places called Barnham. The place-name is usually explained from an Old English personal name such as Beorn or Beorn-/Barn- plus ham, meaning “homestead” or “village.” Some 19th-century writers also glossed it more loosely as a name meaning “the town in the wood or hill,” but the Barnham explanation is the more standard one.
History
Bardsley and Lower both note Barnum as an American form or corruption of Barnham, reflecting a common change of -ham to -um in some family names after migration. The surname is documented in England, but it became especially familiar in the United States. The best-known bearer is Phineas T. Barnum, which helped make the name widely recognized in American culture.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers specifically used Barnum as a textbook example of the way English -ham place-names sometimes became -um in America.
From the historical record
“and veld, a field. BARNUM. Local. A corruption of Bearriham, the town in the wood or hill. Bern, in the Swiss language, signifies a bear. This family was originally of Southwick, County Hants, England. 64 ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY BAKE. (Celtic.) Local. The top or summit of any thing; any thing round. Bar, Gaelic, an…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian NamesNotable people named Barnum
- P. T. Barnum (1810–1891)
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