Soames

Recorded as Soame, Soames, and Somes, this is a famous English medieval surname. First recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 with that of Warin de Saham, lord of the manor. It is therefore one earliest of all surnames recorded anywhere, being locational from a village called Soham in the county of Cambridgeshire. Locational surnames were those that were given to the local lord of the manor and his or sometimes her, descendants, or later in medieval times, to former inhabitants of the place who moved somewhere else, and were most easily identified by being called after their former homestead. There are at least two coats of arms granted to the Soame name holders and one to Soames, although as to which is the earliest and what the relationship is between the families is a matter for genealogical research. The place name is considerably older than the surname, the first surviving record being in the year 995 a.d. as Saegham, which translates as the farm (ham) by the lake (sae). No lake exists today but certainly did at Domesday, being recorded as 'lacus.