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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : nickname from Middle English thum ‘thumb’, for someone with a missing or deformed thumb, or for someone of very small size. Compare the folk tale of ‘Tom Thumb’.
  • German : from a short form (of Slavic origin) of the personal name Thomas.
  • German : habitational name from places called Thum in Rhineland and Saxony, or Thumen in Bavaria, or a topographic name from Middle High German tuom ‘episcopal church’ (Dom).

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