BECKHAM Family History

This name is of English locational origin from a place thus called in Norfolk. Recorded variously as Beccheham and Becham in the Domesday Book of 1086, the first element is the Old English pre 7th Century personal byname Becca, from 'becca', a mattock or pickaxe, and originally given as a metonymic occupational name to a maker or user of these implements, plus 'ham', a homestead; hence, 'Becca's homestead'. The surname was first recorded in the latter part of the 14th Century, (see below). The name is widespread in Norfolk church registers from the mid 16th Century.