Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of various places called Clapham, for example in Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, and North Yorkshire. The first three are named with Old English clopp(a) ‘lump’, ‘hillock’ + hām ‘homestead’ or hamm ‘enclosure hemmed in by water’, while the Yorkshire place name is formed with an Old English word clæpe ‘noisy stream’.