Explore the Family Name Canham

The meaning of Canham

English (East Anglia): habitational name from a place in Suffolk called Cavenham (of which this is a shortened form), from the genitive case of an unattested Old English byname Cāfna (from cāf ‘bold, active’) + Old English hām ‘homestead’.

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

How common is the last name Canham in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Canham has seen a decline between 2000 and 2010. The ranking of this surname dropped from 26,672 in 2000 to 32,203 in 2010, marking a decrease of around 20.74%. In addition, the count of individuals carrying the Canham name also fell by approximately 16.65%, from 859 in 2000 to 716 a decade later. The proportion of people with this surname per 100,000 also decreased by 25%, from 0.32 to 0.24.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#26,672	#32,203	-20.74%
Count	859	716	-16.65%
Proportion per 100k	0.32	0.24	-25%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Canham

Ethnicity data from the same census shows that there have been changes in the ethnic identity of individuals with this surname. No Asian/Pacific Islanders were recorded with this surname in 2000, but by 2010, they made up 0.7% of all Canhams. People identifying as two or more races also saw a significant increase of 99.05%, up from 1.05% in 2000 to 2.09% in 2010. However, the percentage of white individuals who carry the Canham surname decreased by 3.33%, from 95.93% in 2000 to 92.74% in 2010. Hispanic representation among those with the Canham name rose by 36.33%, increasing from 2.56% in 2000 to 3.49% in 2010. There was no change in the percentage of Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native individuals with this surname over this period.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.93%	92.74%	-3.33%
Hispanic	2.56%	3.49%	36.33%
Two or More Races	1.05%	2.09%	99.05%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.7%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%