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The helm Surname

helm Name Meaning and History

  1. English (chiefly Lancashire): topographic name for someone who lived by or worked at a rough temporary shelter for animals, Middle English helm (Old Norse hjalmr, related to the Old English and Old High German words in 2 below), or a habitational name from a minor place named Helm or Helme from this word, as for example in County Durham, Northumberland, and West Yorkshire.
  2. English, German, and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for a maker of helmets, from Middle English, Middle High German, Middle Dutch helm.
  3. German and Dutch: from a medieval personal name, a short form of any of the various compound names formed with helm ‘helmet’. Compare, e.g., Helmbrecht.
  4. Scottish: habitational name from Helme in Roxburghshire (Borders).
  5. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Helm ‘helmet’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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helm Family Facts

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Distribution of helm Families in the US in 1920
Number of helm families
 106-210
 36-105
 1-35
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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