Stidham
An English surname that likely began as a place-based name, probably from a now-lost or altered local place name.
The #4,684 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,737 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Stidham is generally treated as an English locational surname, though the exact place behind it is uncertain. It is likely to contain the Old English element "ham," meaning "homestead" or "village," with the first element probably referring to a personal name, a description of a place, or an older local word now obscured. In many such surnames, the spelling was later reshaped in England and especially in America, which can make the original source-name hard to identify with confidence.
History
The surname is best known in English-speaking countries, especially the United States, where it appears in several spelling forms. Like many locational surnames, it was probably adopted by families who left the original settlement and were identified by where they had come from. Because the underlying place-name is obscure, the surname’s early history is not firmly documented in standard reference works.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
This is one of those surnames that looks straightforward but may preserve the name of a place that no longer exists or was never clearly recorded.