Fulghum History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Fulghum thought to be of Norman heritage. It is a name for a person who was a person who had a limp, or a malformed leg. The name was originally derived from the Old French fol, which means foolish, and jambe, which means leg. Such names are often attributed to people in jest. A broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, nicknames often referred or alluded to a physical feature. Unfortunately, on some occasions the tradition emphasized a physical deformity or injury in a way that would be considered cruel today, however, at the time this practice was meant only to identify a person by a distinguishing characteristic.

Early Origins of the Fulghum family

The surname Fulghum was first found in Derbyshire where by the early 11th and 12th centuries the name was already well established in the Peak District and was one of the marauding families of the East Cheshire and Derbyshire forests which were controlled by Sir George Vernon, known as the 'King of the Peak'.

In the 13th century, Sir Thomas Foljambe was Bailiff of the High Peak. These Cheshire and Derbyshire families provided the core of Knights and fighting men for the wars in France during that time.

Sir Godfrey de Foljambe (1317-1376) was a prominent landowner and politician from Derbyshire, the fourth son of Sir Thomas de Foljambe. At that time, the family were Lords of the Manor of Tideswell and also held lands at Darley Dale. Godfrey rose to become an Irish judge and served as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. His tomb can still be seen at All Saints Church, Bakewell.

Foulsham is a village and civil parish in Norfolk that dates back to the Domesday Book where it was listed as Folsham and literally meant "farmstead of a man called Fugol" from the Old English personal name + ham. 1

The village gave its name to a family of Puritan dissidents who fled England to America to settle in Hingham, Massachusetts, where they frequently changed their name to Folsom.

Early History of the Fulghum family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Fulghum research. Another 86 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1622, 1626, 1633 and 1640 are included under the topic Early Fulghum History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Fulghum Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Foljambe, Foljambes, Folgambe, Folgambes, Folyambe, Folyambes, Fuljame, Fuljames, Fulgambe, Fulgambes, Fulljames, Fullgames, Folljames, Foliambe, Fuliambe, Foliam, Fuliam, Foliams and many more.

Early Notables of the Fulghum family

Another 45 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Fulghum Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Fulghum Ranking

In the United States, the name Fulghum is the 13,286^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 2

Migration of the Fulghum family

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Fulghum or a variant listed above were: William Foliam who landed in North America in 1763; William Foljambe, who was naturalized in Allegheny Co. PA in 1854.

Contemporary Notables of the name Fulghum (post 1700) +

Robert Lee Fulghum (b. 1937), American author and Unitarian Universalist minister
Luke Fulghum (b. 1980), American professional ice hockey forward
James Lavoisier "Dot" Fulghum (1900-1947), American Major League Baseball infielder who played for the Philadelphia Athletics during the 1921 season
James S. "Jim" Fulghum III (1944-2014), American physician and politician, Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/