Ham Family History
Ham Name Meaning
English (mainly southwestern) and German: variant of Hamm . Dutch: topographic name from ham ‘land in a river bend’ ‘enclosed meadow’ or a habitational name from any of several country houses and places called De(n) Ham. Compare Van Ham and Vanderham . French: habitational name from any of various places in northern France (Ardennes Pas-de-Calais Somme Moselle) named with the ancient Germanic word ham ‘meadow in the bend of a river water meadow flood plain’. Hungarian (Hám) Slovak (also Hám) and Croatian: nickname or occupational name from Hungarian hám (Croatian ham) ‘harness’. Alternatively it may be of German origin (see Hamm ). Slovenian: perhaps a nickname from the interjection ham ‘bite grab’. Alternatively it may be from dialect ham ‘harness’ (see 4 above) or of German origin (see Hamm ). Czech (also Hám): from a short form of the personal name Abraham .7: Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Ham surname. Some sources report that there are sixty different Ham clans but only the Kangnŭng Ham clan can be documented. Although some records have been lost and a few generations are unaccounted for it is known that the founding ancestor of the Ham clan is Ham Kyu a Koryŏ general who fought against the Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century. His ancestor Ham Hyŏk was a Tang Chinese general who stayed in Korea after Tang China helped Shilla unify the peninsula during the seventh century. Another of Ham Hyŏk's ancestors Ham Shin accompanied Kim Chu-wŏn the founding ancestor of the Kangnŭng Kim family to the Kangnŭng area and hence the Ham clan became the Kangnŭng Ham clan. The first prominent ancestor from Kangnŭng whose genealogy can be verified is Ham Kyu the Koryŏ general. Accordingly he is regarded as the Kangnŭng Ham clan's founding ancestor. Compare Hahm 8: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 咸 see Xian 9: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 闞 see Kan 10: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 范 see Fan 1 Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 譚 see Tan 1 Chinese: possibly from Cantonese form of the Chinese name 涵 (meaning ‘contain’) a monosyllabic personal name or part of a disyllabic personal name of some early Chinese immigrants in the US.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
