Heims
A surname of uncertain origin, most likely a Germanic or assimilated form built from a personal name or place-name root.
The #5,089 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 44,869 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The evidence for Heims is thin, and the historical excerpt does not give a direct explanation of the surname itself. The form may be related to a Germanic base such as Heim, meaning “home” or “household,” or it may be a surname that developed from a place-name or a shortened immigrant surname in an English-speaking country. Because the surviving documentation is limited, the safest conclusion is that its exact origin is uncertain.
History
Heims is not well documented in the older surname dictionaries, which usually means it was either comparatively rare, locally concentrated, or recorded under related spellings. In modern usage it appears chiefly as a North American surname, often suggestive of German-language ancestry or later Anglicized spelling habits. The form may also have been influenced by surnames like Heim, Himes, or similar variants.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In German, heim is a very old word element meaning “home,” which is why it turns up in many surnames and place-names.
From the historical record
“TAIT. Teit was a personal name in Norway in the XI. cent. See the Heims- kringla. The name is sometimes varied to Taitt, Taite and Tate, TALBOT. This ilhfetrious family trace, sine JUatii, to the great Domesday tenant,”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom