Grantham
A locational surname meaning “from Grantham,” the Lincolnshire town.
The #3,440 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,747 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Grantham is a place-name surname taken from the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire. The town name is generally understood as an old English place-name, though the surname itself is simply locational: it identified someone who came from, or was associated with, that town. Older surname books note it as being borne by people styled “de Grantham” in medieval records.
History
The name appears in English records from the medieval period and was used for families whose roots were in or near the Lincolnshire town. Nineteenth-century surname writers consistently treat it as a straightforward local name, not as a nickname or occupation. It has remained uncommon, with a modest modern presence in English-speaking countries, especially the United States and Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname authority even gives an early medieval pedigree for the name, reflecting how long the town-name was being used as a family identifier.
From the historical record
“CO. that the Duke of Grafton takes his title. GRANTHAM. A town in Lincoln- sliirc. GRAPES. An Innkeeper's sign. GRAHAM. The name h;>s always been written interchangeably with Gramme — the Scottish oi'thography. The earliest tracea- ble ancestor, (for we reject of course the fifth-century hero Greme — See Gramie,)…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom