Ditcham Family History

Perhaps from Ditchingham (Norfolk) with a reduction of Middle English Dichingeham to Dich(eh)am. This fits the modern distribution of the surname, but early forms of the place-name showing the necessary reduction have not been found. The place-name denoted the homestead (Old English hām) of the Dicingas, an Old English folk name meaning ‘the people of a man named Dic(c)a’ or ‘dwellers at the dyke or ditch’. Post-medieval bearers of the name may alternatively belong at (2) or (3).

See Detchon, a NE England surname that had evidently migrated down the east coast to the port of Lynn by the early 16th century. The development to Ditcham is evidenced in 19th-century Northumberland. Perhaps from Ditcham in Buriton (Hants), but after its possible attestation in late 13th-century East Sussex, the surname seems to disappear from the records.

The place-name may have denoted the homestead (Old English hām) of a man named Dic(c)a or a homestead near a ditch or dyke (Old English dīc).