Bigham Family History

Scottish (Wigtownshire) and Irish: habitational name from either Bigholm in Beith parish (Ayrshire) or Bigholms in Langholm parish (Dumfriesshire). The second element of the placename is from Older Scots holm (Old Norse holmr) ‘islet’ ‘raised land in a marsh’ ‘a stretch of low-lying land beside a river; a meadow’.

The first element may be an unattested Older Scots bigge, a shortened form of bigging ‘building’. The name was taken to Ulster in the 17th and 18th centuries where it was used interchangeably with Bingham.