Croom Family History

English: nickname for a cripple or hunchback, from Middle English crom(p), Old English crumb ‘bent’, ‘crooked’, ‘stooping’. Compare Crump. English: metonymic occupational name for a maker, seller, or user of hooks, from Middle English crome, cromb ‘hook’, ‘crook’ (from Old English crumb ‘bent’, reinforced by an Old French borrowing from a Germanic cognate). English: habitational name from Croom in East Yorkshire or Croome in Worcestershire. The first is named with Old English crohum, dative plural (used originally after a preposition) of croh ‘narrow valley’ (a cognate of Old Norse krá ‘corner’, ‘bend’, and related to the words mentioned in 1 and 2 above). The place in Worcestershire is named with an old British river name ultimately cognate with the other words mentioned here; compare Welsh crwm ‘crooked’, ‘winding’. Americanized spelling of German Krumm.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press