Outram

This interesting English surname is locational. Recorded in many forms including Oultam, Oultram, Outram, Outran, Owtram, and Owttrim, it originates either from a now "lost" medieval village believed to have been in the county of Derbyshire, or as a contracted form of "uter-ham", a reference to a person who lived outside of the main settlement. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "ut" meaning out in the sense of outer or external, plus "ham" a village or homestead. Early examples of the surname recordings taken from surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London include examples such as Elizabeth Outrum, who married John Freeze on August 15th 1637, at St. Dunstan's in the East, Stepney; William, the son of Christofer Outram, who was christened on May 6th 1642, at St. Giles' Cripplegate; Jone Outram who married Michael Knight on February 23rd 1657, at St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf, and Robert Oultram, a witness at St Mary Whitechapel, also Stepney, on March 14th 1751. One of the earliest landowners in the New World was Robert Outram, recorded as having 10 acres in the parish of Christ Church in the Barbados, on December 22nd 1679. The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of John Outram. This was dated April 10th 1601, a witness at a christening at Wath upon Dearne, Yorkshire. This was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st of England, 1558 - 1603. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.