Windham Family History
Windham Surname Meaning
English: habitational name usually from the Norfolk placename Wymondham, which is locally pronounced /wɪndəm/. The placename probably derives from the Old English personal name Wīgmund + Old English hām ‘village, homestead’. By various marriages in the 16th century, the Wyndham family of Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, acquired estates in North Yorkshire and Somerset, for which reason the manor of Orchard in the parish of Watchet came to be known as Orchard Wyndham in the early 17th century.
Later descendants became earls of Egremont, whose estates included Petworth in Sussex. This and other marital acquisitions probably explain the post-medieval presence of the surname in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, northern England, and perhaps also (from the late 17th century) in Sussex and Kent.
In 1741, Percy Wyndham of the Orchard family inherited the earldom of Thomond in Ireland, which may account for the currency of the name in Connacht. English: habitational name perhaps occasionally from Wymondham in Leicestershire. The placename derives from the Old English personal name Wīgmund (genitive Wīgmundes) + Old English hām ‘village, homestead’.
English: habitational name from Wyndham in Shermanbury (Sussex). The placename derives from an Old English personal name Winda + Old English hamm ‘water meadow’. Irish (Connacht): Anglicized (‘translated’) form of Gaelic Ó Gaoithín ‘descendant of Gaoithín’ (see Gahan), by linking Irish gaoth ‘wind’ with the name Wyndham.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022