Family name origins & meanings
- English, Scottish, and Irish (of Norman origin) : of disputed origin. It may be from a Celtic personal name derived from the element cam ‘bent’, ‘crooked’ (compare Cameron and Campbell). This was relatively frequent in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire in the 12th and 13th centuries, perhaps as a result of Breton immigration. According to another theory it is a habitational name from Comines near Lille, but there is no evidence for this (no early forms with de have been found). In southern Ireland this Anglo-Norman name has been confused with 2.
- Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cuimín (or Ó Cuimín) ‘son (or ‘descendant’) of Cuimín’, a personal name formed from a diminutive of cam ‘crooked’.
- Americanized form of French Canadian Vien, Viens, based on the misconception that these derive from French venire ‘to come’.