Buckham

This is an English locational surname. Recorded in a number of spellings including Buckham, Buxam, Buckam, Bucham, and others, this is either from the village of Buckham in the county of Dorset near to the small town of Beaminster, or it is a dialectal short form of the county town of Buckingham, in Buckinghamshire, or from the village of Buckenham in the county of Norfolk. According to the Dictionary of English Place Names, all have much the same meaning of 'Bucca's village,' with Bucca being an early pre 7th century English personal name, plus 'ham' meaning a farm or homestead. All appear in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, and at that time all had much the same spelling of Bockham or Bucham. Locational surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. The easiest way to identify such strangers, was to call them by the name of the place from whence they came. Spelling over the centuries being at best erratic, and local dialects very thick, soon lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. In this case early examples of the surname spelling taken at random from surviving charters and registers include William de Bukenham of Norfolk in the Hundred Rolls of the year 1273, Susan Buckam, christened at St Margarets Westminster, on April 17th 1550, and Susanna Buckham, christened at St Martins Ludgate, in the city of London, on August 8th 1640.