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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from the place in Lancashire, so named from Middle English ald, old ‘old’ + holm ‘island’, ‘dry land in a fen’, ‘promontory’.
  • English : topographic name from Old English (e)ald ‘old’ + hamm ‘water meadow’, ‘low-lying land by a river’.
  • English : Colonist and trader John Oldham was born in Lancashire, England, in about 1600 and emigrated to America in 1623, arriving at Plymouth, MA, in July on the ship Anne.

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