Putman
Usually a reduced or altered form of Puttenham, a place-name surname from England.
The #3,924 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 34,085 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken to be a shortened or changed form of Puttenham, an English place-name. The ending -ham in old place-names means 'homestead' or 'village', and surnames of this kind often lost or blurred that ending over time. A minority view in older sources tried to connect it with a well or spring word, but the place-name explanation is the better-attested one.
History
19th-century surname writers repeatedly cite Putman as an altered form of Puttenham, with similar examples such as Deadman from Debenham. The name appears in English records and later spread to North America, where it is now found more commonly than in Britain. Older compilations sometimes treated it as a separate descriptive surname, but that interpretation is less convincing than the locational one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley grouped Putman with a small set of surnames that seem to have shed their final place-name ending, leaving a more compact modern form.
From the historical record
“Swetlenham, or Debnam and Dead- man for Dcbenham, or Pulnam and Putman for Puttenham. Ad lam is a further and natural variant! cf. boHmsler for balusitr. With Adnum, cr. Bamum for Bamham. ■ <T4-.^. Robrtt Krchrll and Anne”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances