indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Meaning & History
Denoted a person hailing from a village called Soham in Cambridgeshire, England. The place name itself means "homestead by the lake" from Old English sæ "lake" and ham "farm, homestead". No lake exists there today but certainly did at Domesday, being recorded as "lacus". The place name is considerably older than the locational surname, the first surviving record being in 995, as Sægham. The surname was first recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 with that of Warin de Saham, lord of the manor.