Burnham Family History

English: habitational name from any of several places called Burnham. Those in Buckinghamshire (Burnham Beeches), Norfolk (various villages), and Essex (Burnham-on-Crouch) are named with Old English burna ‘stream’ + hām ‘homestead’.

In the case of Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, however, the second element is Old English hamm ‘water meadow’ while Burnham in Lincolnshire is named from brunnum, dative plural of Old Norse brunnr ‘spring’ originally used after a preposition, i.e. ‘(at) the springs’.