Origins, Meanings and Early Ormes

Date: [unknown]
Surname/tag: One Name Study

Contents 1 About this Study 2 Members of this Research Team: 3 Origins and Meanings 3.1 1. Serpent or Dragon 3.2 2. Elm Tree 4 The Earliest Known Ormes 5 Tools Resources and Intereting Links 6 Sources

About this Study

This special research page is part of the Orme Name Study project. It is specifically about the origins and meanings of the surname Orme. It is concerned with the earliest known people with this name.

See the main Orme Name Study page for Overall information about the Orme Study, including the scope and purpose of the project, tools and resources for research, things to do and more.

Add general information and statistics about very early Ormes to this page. Specific information about individuals should be added to their own profile.

Members of this Research Team:

• Chris Orme.

If you are a member of the Orme Name Study and would like to contribute to this special study, please add you name above and get started!

Origins and Meanings

There are two possible origins of the surname Orme.

1. Serpent or Dragon

The first possible origin comes from the Old Norse name Orm or Ormr, meaning ‘snake’, ‘serpent’ or ‘dragon’. It may have originally been a byname (see below).

ORME. A personal name not uncommon in Saxon and Norman times, and doubtless of Scandinavian origin. In the Old Norse, the generic name for serpents is orm. Some early landowners with this designation have impressed it upon the Ormsbys, Ormerod, Ormside, Ormes-Head, Ormskirk, in England, and upon Ormidale, the Ormistons, and Ormary, in Scotland. Domesday presents us with tenants called Orme in the counties of York and Lincoln, and in the former shire a personnge so named held immediately from the crown.^[1]

The National Museum of Denmark website has a page about Viking names. It notes that animal names were popular.

It was not unusual to meet Vikings with names like Orm (Serpent), Ulf (Wolf) and Bjørn (Bear). These names celebrate the gods’ formidable enemies – such as the Midgard serpent and the wolf Fenrir – beasts that the Norse gods had to defeat at Ragnarök... We are familiar with Viking names from, for instance, runic inscriptions and place names... Some Vikings also had bynames. These could, for example, indicate a kinship (e.g. son of or daughter of) or the place that a person came from (e.g. Bjarke the Norwegian, who lived in Denmark). The name could also indicate a special quality or possession (e.g. Asgot with the Red Shield).

2. Elm Tree

The second possible origin is a French topographic name for someone who lived near an elm tree, from Old French orme (Latin ulmus).^[2]

The Earliest Known Ormes

According to Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901), there are twenty-two Ormes in the Landnámabók (a medieval Icelandic work which describes the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE).^[3]

There are two people with the name Orm in the Doomsday Book of 1086, Orm and Orm son of Gamal.

The 1169 Lancashire Pipe Rolls lists Orm de Hedoc.^[4]

A twelfth century monk named Orm, an Augustinian Canon, created a work of Biblical exegesis in early Middle English verse, which today is held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It is of great to linguists.^[5][6][7]

The 1901 Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames lists some other early Ormes, as follows:

• Alice fil. Orme, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.
• William Orm, Nottinghamshire, ibid.
• Orme de Neville, Lincolnshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.
• Ormus Archebrgge, Westmorland, ibid.
• John fil. Orme, Yorkshire: Liber Vitae (Surtees Society).
• Gospatric, son of Orme, 32 Henry II: Nicolson and Burn, Westm. and Cumb.
• Orm fil. Bernulfi, 21 Richard II: Farness Concher Book.
• Robert fil. Orm, 21 Richard II: ibid.
• Orm de Orgrave, 21 Richard II: ibid.
• 1593. Buried — Thomas Scott, servant to John Orme: St. James, Clerkenwell.
• 1609. Baptised — Edward Ormeson: Reg. Prestbury Ch., Cheshire.

It adds that Orme was a common Surname in the North and very popular in the Cumbria and North Lancashire district.^[8]

Tools Resources and Intereting Links

• the Orme website

Sources

1. ↑ Patronymica Britannica : a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, by Lower, Mark Antony, 1813-1876, page 250. Accessed 23 Jun 2022 at Internet Archive.
2. ↑ Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press, cited at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=orme, accessed 25 Sep 2019.
3. ↑ Yonge, Charlotte Mary (1823-1901), History of Christian names, Published 1863, London : Parker, Son, and Bourn, Vol. II, Page 290. Accessed 23 Jun 2022 at Internet Archive.
4. ↑ The Lancashire Pipe rolls of Henry II., A.D. 1155-1189, Roll No. 15, Page 12. Accessed 24 Jun 2022 at Internet Archive record.
5. ↑ See Wikipedia:Ormulum.
6. ↑ The Ormulum, with the notes and glossary, of R.M. White, by White, Robert Meadows, 1798-1865; Holt, Robert, Published 1878. Accessed 8 July 2022 at [Internet Archive copy].
7. ↑ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Orm". Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orm. Accessed 8 July 2022.
8. ↑ A dictionary of English and Welsh surnames, with special American instances, by Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell, 1843-1898; Bardsley, A., "Mrs. Charles Wareing Bardsley," ed,, published 1901, London ; New York : H. Frowde. Accessed 23 Jun 2022 at Internet Archive.