Hamm Family History

English: topographic name from Old English hamm, denoting a patch of flat, low-lying alluvial land beside a stream (often a promontory or water meadow in a river bend), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in Gloucestershire, Greater London, Kent, Somerset, and Wiltshire. German: topographic name for someone who lived on land in a river bend, Old High German ham (see 1 above). German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from Hamm, a city in Westphalia.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press