Kamp
A German surname originally referring to a field, enclosure, or battle-fight, depending on which older source you follow.
The #8,006 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,739 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is usually traced to Middle Low German kamp, 'field,' 'enclosed piece of land,' or 'plot,' ultimately from Latin campus, 'field.' Some older German scholarship also connects it with an older Germanic word for 'fight' or 'contest,' but the place-name/field sense is the more common surname explanation. In surname use, it often began as a topographic name for someone living by or on a kamp, or as part of a compound place-name.
History
Kamp is found especially in northern and western German-speaking areas, where kamp is a common dialect word in place-names and farm-names. It also appears in many compounds such as Kampen and Kampfer/Kemper, and in surnames like Lohkamp or Roggenkämper. The surname likely spread through both direct topographic naming and the reuse of local place-names as family names.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older German naming practice, kamp could mean a clearly bounded field or enclosed piece of land, which is why it shows up so often in farm and place names.
From the historical record
“keraerlinc „Kammerdiener*. (Das Wort noch im ital. camerlengo). KAMP I. ahd. cbampb, mhd. kämpf „Kampf* (urspr. Eifer, Wetteifer). FN. Kan>phard: Kemperi — Kempfert. Einstämmige Kürzung Camp-. Campo (noch fries. VN.), Chempho: Campo; Campe — Kampf — Kempe — Kämpffe; Kempf Qeu, Kamps; Kampen, Patr. A. Overkämping…”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen