Hamm

Locally spelled 함 in KR South Korea, Ham in NL Netherlands and Hima in ID Indonesia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Hamm is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• English79%

  topographic name from Old English hamm, denoting a patch of flat, low-lying alluvial land beside a stream (often a promontory or water meadow in a river bend), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in Gloucestershire, Greater London, Kent, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

  topographic name for someone who lived on land in a river bend. Old High German ham (see 1 above).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

  habitational name from Hamm, a city in Westphalia.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

  An English topographic surname for someone who lived in an area of flat land near a river; or a habitational name from several places with the same name in southern England.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• German5.3%

  a topographic or habitational surname with an etymology similar to that of English Hamm

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Hamm is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name3 spellings in the group

  Also written Hâmm, Ḥamm

• Arabic surname14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia

  Languages: Arabic, Hebrew

  Also written Hãmm, האמם, Hǎmm, Hämm, Hámm

• Hungarian surname4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Hungary, Finland, Canada

  Languages: Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish

  Also written Hâmm

• Vietnamese surname4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Hâmm, Hâm'M, Hâm-M

45 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Hamm is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Hungarian, yum (refers to eating food, imitating the quick opening and closing of the mouth; can be childish, but also can enliven the presentation of the story; also used repetitively)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Munro Leafb. 1905USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer and illustrator (1905–1976)
• Jon Hammb. 1971USAmerican actor (born 1971)
• Mia Hammb. 1972USAmerican soccer player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

36 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 22 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Hamm mean, and where does it come from?

topographic name from Old English hamm, denoting a patch of flat, low-lying alluvial land beside a stream (often a promontory or water meadow in a river bend), or a habitational name from any of numer… Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.

How do you pronounce Hamm?

In German /ˈham/ (Wiktionary).

Which countries have the most people with the surname Hamm?

In South Korea, the national register counted about 81 thousand people named 함, more than in any other country we hold. After it come United States, Germany, Indonesia and United Kingdom; the country table on this page ranks them.

How common is the name Hamm?

In the United States, the national register counted 26,726 people named Hamm in 2010, about 1 in 12 thousand residents.

How common is Hamm compared with other names?

In South Korea, Hamm is the 50th most common surname of 14,133 surnames recorded there.