Latham (surname)

Latham (pronounced 'lay-thm') is an Old Scandinavian surname.
Origins and variants.
The surname may derive from a place called "Latham". The word is related to a "(place of or by) the barns", related to the Old Norse "hlatha", barn. Lathom in Lancashire is recorded as "Latune" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in the 1201 Pipe Rolls of the county as "Lathum". "Laytham" in East Yorkshire appears as "Ladone" in the Domesday Book. Locational surnames were usually acquired by those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The modern surname can found as "Latham", "Lathom", "Laytham", "Leatham", "Lathem", "Latam", and "Leedham". The first recorded spelling of the surname is shown to be that of Robert de Latham (witness), which was dated 1204, in the "Yorkshire Assize Court Rolls", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 – 1216.