Elam

English habitational name for someone from a place called Elham, in Kent, or a lost place of this name in Crayford, Kent. The first is derived from Old English el ‘eel’ + ham ‘homestead’ or hamm ‘enclosure hemmed in by water’. There is also an Elam Grange in Bingley, West Yorkshire, but the current distribution of the name in the British Isles suggests that it did not contribute significantly to the surname.