Blum

This unusual and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a metonymic occupational name for a maker of blooms, an iron-worker, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "bloma" (Middle English "blome"), ingot of iron. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. The surname first appears on record in the latter part of the 12th Century (see below). In 1198, one Walter Blome was noted in the Pipe Rolls of London. Early examples of the name containing the agent suffix "-er(e)", denoting "one who does or works with" include: William Blomere (Derbyshire, 1202); Robert le Blomere (Staffordshire, 1279); and Johannes Blomere (Yorkshire, 1379). The modern English word "bloom", flower, came into English from the Old Norse "blom" in the 13th Century, but probably did not give rise to any surnames; however, the Ashkenazic ornamental name "Blum" from the Yiddish "blum", flower, is occasionally Anglicized Bloom. On July 12th 1582, Alyce Blome and Gabriell Kennett were married in Canterbury, Kent, and on July 24th 1691, Thomas, son of John Bloom, was christened at St. Botolph's, Colchester, Essex. A Coat of Arms granted to the Bloom family is an azure shield with a silver dexter hand couped at the wrist, the Crest being a cubit arm holding in the hand proper some slips of broom. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anselm Blome, which was dated 1177, in the "Pipe Rolls of Sussex", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.