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Report: Go(a)tham as a Christian name / forename
Description: [The table below extracts data from the trees that are online, so at present it and the accompanying article omit most Americans]
From the late C18th using a family or other surname as a Christian name, usually a middle name, became quite popular, particularly in Devon. This report summaries this use, with notes on what is known of the choice - who the recipients of the name were being named after and why.
It does not generally show the living, but there have been some recent instances (the most recent I know of were born in the 1990s). If you could see living data you would see an apparent gap from 1935 to the early 1970s with none; this is probably due to me not knowing that a 'G' stands for Goatham or Gotham because middle names were dropped from the GRO indexes for many years (those missing in the original index from the early C20th to 1934 can now be found in the GRO online index).
At the time of writing there are 70 with the middle name of Gotham or Goatham, 67 between 1782 and 1930. Of these 67, just 7 were relations of or named after Kent 'Goathams'.
Of these seven:
three were not blood relations of Goathams, and the name appears a tribute to a Goatham;
one was illegitimate, and Goatham was probably the father's surname;
just three were given the family name because doing so had become popular: 2 were given their mother's maiden name, 1 their paternal grandmother's maiden name.
By contrast most of the others were Devonians or recently descended from the Devon Gothams. Even there, the practice was particularly found in some families, and varied in that some gave the same middle name (usually the mother's maiden name) to most of their children, others used a variety of family surnames. The number shown with Gotham or Goatham as a middle name is somewhat arbitrary due to one particular branch; Gotham was given as a middle name to some Potter children, but this practice continued over several generations, until some started using Gotham not as a forename but part of a double-barrelled surname, Gotham Potter. Quite when this change from second Christian name to first part of surname occurred is not entirely clear (there are often double entries in indexes) - hence the number being somewhat arbitrary.
It was not just in Kent and by the Devon Gothams that Go(a)tham was given as a middle name; it is also found in those from the Shropshire Gottams and the Lancashire group, despite the latter having only recently acquired the surname (from the Anglicization of an Irish surname).
Sometimes the first name used with the Gotham / Goatham middle name suggests a person was named after a particular person, in others there is no closely related person with the first Christian name, or there is, but they were not a Gotham (by birth or marriage). Quite often the first name was so common that it is not possible to tell.
The following table is in order of One-Name Study groups; it can also be viewed in birth date order here.
One-Name Study groups
These appear after the name and in a separate 'Suffix [ONS gp]' column.
[G-?(M)] - Gothams of unknown origin, found in Middlesex
[G-D(n)] - Devon Gotham ancestry where n can be:
AD - Gothams and their descendants who descend from Andrew of Abbotskerswell, Gothams still in Devon
LS - Gothams and their descendants who descend from Agnes of Abbotskerswell, moved to Liverpool and Staffordshire
MB - Gothams and their descendants from a Gotham family in Morchard Bishop (now thought probably also descendants from Agnes of Abbotskerswell)
TM - Gothams and their descendants from a Gotham family of Teignmouth Mariners (now believed also to be descendants from Agnes of Abbotskerswell)
[G-K] - Kentish Goatham ancestry
[G-L] - Gotham ancestry originating in Lancashire in C19th from Anglicization of an Irish surname
[G-S] - Shropshire/Staffordsire Gotham ancestry (n.b. separate from the many Staffordshire Gothams with Devon Gotham ancestry)
Matches 61 to 67 of 67
| # | Full Name | Middle name relationship | Birth Date | Birth Place | Suffix [ONS gp] | Person ID |
| 61 | William Harold Goatham (“Harold”) RICHMOND, [G-K] | Goatham: his paternal grandmother's maiden name | Jun Q 1904 | Sheffield, Yorkshire, England  |
[G-K] | I27358 |
| 62 | Frank Gotham GREGORY, [G-L] | His gt grandmother's maiden name; half uncle was Arthur Gotham GREGORY | 10 Jan 1930 | 13, Heys Buildings, Shawforth, Whitworth, Lancashire, England |
[G-L] | I304633 |
| 63 | Arthur Gotham GREGORY, [G-L] | His maternal grandmother's maiden name | 7 Apr 1893 | 34, Spring Side, Whitworth, Lancashire, England |
[G-L] | I304631 |
| 64 | Arthur Gotham MAYOH, [G-L] | His mother's maiden name | Sep Q 1879 | Blackburn Reg Dist, Lancashire, England |
[G-L] | I302226 |
| 65 | Hubert de Gotham PARKER-JERVIS, [G-M(E)] | Probably named to suggest or point to a link to late C14th marriage of Thomas PARKER to a de GOTHAM | 29 Dec 1858 | London, Middlesex, England |
[G-M(E)] | I305569 |
| 66 | Gothan Charles PEARCE, [G-S] | [First name] His maternal grandmother's maiden name | 14 Mar 1917 | Llanelly Reg Dist, Carmarthenshire or Glamorganshire, Wales |
[G-S] | I305576 |
| 67 | Fanny Gotham CHAPPELL, [G-S] | Her mother's maiden name | 24 Aug 1865 | Hanley Sub-District, Stoke on Trent Reg Dist, Staffordshire, England |
[G-S] | I302225 |
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