Explore the Family Name Bellingham

The meaning of Bellingham

English: habitational name from any of the places called Bellingham, in Greater London (formerly in Kent) and Northumberland. The former is named with Old English Beringahām ‘homestead (Old English hām) of the followers of Be(o)ra’, a byname meaning ‘bear’; the latter seems to have been originally named as the ‘homestead of the dwellers at the bell’, from Old English belle used in a transferred sense of a bell-shaped hill. History: Richard Bellingham (c.1592–1672) came from Boston, Lincolnshire, England, to Boston, MA, in 1634. He was a controversial political figure in the new colony, an opponent of John Winthrop (see Winthrop). He was elected governor of MA in 1641 and again in 1654 and 1665–72. — An Irish family of this name trace their descent from William de Bellingham, who was sheriff of Tynedale, Northumbria, in 1279. They were established in Ireland by Robert Bellingham, who settled in County Longford in 1611. They gave their name to Castlebellingham in County Louth, Ireland.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.