All phonetic spellings of Marnham (e.g. Marnam/Marnum/Marneham) are included in the study.

There are several surnames that are similar to Marnham such as Marham and Markham or Marcham.

These surnames appear to have distinct identities and different places of origin e.g. Marham in Norfolk, Markham (close to Marnham) in Nottinghamshire and Marcham in Oxfordshire so these are not currently considered as variants of Marnham.

The surname Marnham almost certainly originates from the parish of Marnham in Nottinghamshire. It is an example of a locative or toponymic surname. Toponymic surnames usually came about when people moved away from the place that the name refers to. As such, these surnames can have multiple origins whereby a number of unrelated people all left a particular place at different times and all acquired that place name as a surname. The earliest examples of these surnames are often in the format "de Placename". Surnames were not widely taken up until the fourteenth century and early surnames were not necessarily heritable.

The Nottingham Institute for Name Studies (KEPN study) states that, the word Marnham is formed from the Old English suffix -hām meaning "a village, a village community, a manor, an estate, a homestead" preceded by the personal name Mearna. Thus, the name means "Mearna's homestead/village".

In the 1086 Doomsday survey Marnham was amongst the most populous 20% of settlements recorded.

Notable bearers of the Marnham surname who died before 1950 include:

• The de Marnham family who held half of the manor at West Bromwich between the mid-thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Bromwich Hall, now the West Bromwich Manor House Museum, is believed to have been built by the de Marnham family in the late thirteenth century.

• William Marnham the elder (d.1711) and his son William Marnham the younger (d.1716) each made provision in their wills to establish a charitable trust. William Marnham the elder intended to provide education and William Marnham the younger to provide poor relief to the residents of their parish of Great Greenford in Middlesex. They died within five years of each other so their trusts were administered together. Marnham's Field, a nature reserve in Ealing, is named after them, being formed of land purchased by their trusts and subsequently sold to the county council in 1937. Over time the Marnham trusts were merged with those of other Greenford residents and the resultant charity is still in existence.

• Henry Marnham (b.1837) was a hatter from East London who enlisted as a private in the 5th Regiment Bengal European Infantry. He was tried at Dinapore court martial in 1860 and subsequently transported to Australia for disobedience amounting to an "act of mutiny". His entire regiment was disbanded in response to the "insubordinate and mutinous conduct" of Henry Marnham and his co-accused.

• Francis J Marnham (1853-1941) was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Chertsey, Surrey between 1906 and 1910 and subsequently Mayor of Torquay between 1926 and 1927.

Marnham is a rare surname carried by approximately one per million people in England and Wales. There were 180 births registered in England and Wales with the surname Marnham between 1837 and 1990.

Most early (pre-16th century) references to the surname Marnham are in the Midlands of England. By the early 17th century the majority of people bearing the surname Marnham were in the county of Middlesex. The name stayed largely concentrated in Middlesex and the surrounding counties into the 20th century. Before the end of the 19th century the Marnham name had been carried overseas.

The website forebears.io suggests that in 2014 63% of people with the surname Marnham were living in the UK whilst 33% were living in Australia and the remainder were living in the Americas. The majority of people with the surname Marnham in the UK were living in southern England.

Data collection is ongoing. Records from outside the UK will be added soon.

Current holdings include:

• Marnham entries in the GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes for England and Wales
• Marnham entries in the Census of England and Wales from 1841 to 1921 in addition to the 1939 register
• An index of a few hundred Marnham entries from digitised parish records from England and Wales
• A number of clippings mentioning the name Marnham from digitised UK historic newspapers
• An index of Marnham entries on inbound and outbound shipping passenger lists for UK ports between 1878 and 1960
• A collection of medieval references to the surname Marnham

Please contact me if any of the above could help you with your research or you have information to share.

A DNA project could shed light on the origins of the surname and help to determine whether names such as Marnham, Marnam and Marham are all variants of the same name or whether they have different origins.

If you are a male with the surname Marnham (any spelling) or Marham or another similar surname and would be interested in participating in a Y-DNA project to discover more about the history and origins of your surname, please get in touch.

FamilyTreeDNA test kits for both Y chromosome (males only) and autosomal testing (suitable for both males and females with a recent Marnham/Marham etc. ancestor) are available to all eligible participants at a discounted price via the Guild. Please contact me for more information.