Colcomb

Recorded as Calcomb, Callacombe, Collacombe, Colcomb, Colcombe, Collcomb, Collecombe and possibly others, this is a rare English surname. It is one which is almost certainly from the county of Devonshire, and if so is locational. In confirmation there is a hamlet called Collacombe Barton near the market town of Tavistock, whilst in medieval times in East Devon there was a castle, and possibly a "lost" village called Colcombe, near the small town of Colyton. Either or both these places could have supplied the surname, as it is usual for locational surnames to be "from" names. That is names given to people for identification after they left their original villages to move somewhere else, often far from their original homes. It is also just possible that it could have been topographical name for a person who lived in a cool or cold valley, from the pre 7th century "col cumb", or even to have meant a valley owned by a person called Cola. Early examples of the surname recordings taken from surviving church registers of Devonshire include Thomasin Collacombe of Braunton, christened there on October 13th 1543, and Mary Colcomb who married Thomas Gregory at St Martins Exeter, on January 2nd 1634.