BROOMFIELD
Broomfield is an English surname that can be traced back to the early medieval period. It is derived from a place name and appears to have arisen as a way of identifying individuals who had moved from a settlement called Broomfield in the counties of Essex, Kent or Somerset.
The name itself is composed of two Old English elements – brom, meaning broom or gorse, and feld, meaning open land or field. Consequently, Broomfield literally denotes a person who lived by an open-land where broom grew in abundance.
It is likely that the surname is either locational or topographical. As a locational name it refers to residence within a place called Broomfield, while as a topographical surname it denotes habitation by a stretch of land characterised by the presence of broom. Historical records support this interpretation. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the corresponding place names appear as Brumfelda, Brumfeld, Brunfelle and Brumfeld. In Cumberland the name was recorded as Burmfeld in the Register of the Priory of Wetherhal in 1145.
Early recorded instances of the family surname include Hamo de Bromfeld in the Hundred Rolls of Kent in 1275, a document produced during the reign of King Edward I, and Robert de Bromfeld in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk in 1185. These early spellings confirm that the name was in use by the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
In 1629 a marriage between John Broomfield and Elizabeth Norncot was recorded at St. Dunstan’s in Stepney, London, illustrating the name’s continued use in England during the early modern period. A family coat of arms granted to the Broomfield line depicts a black shield with a silver chevron bearing three green broom sprigs, a gold canton holding a blue spear’s head with a red strip, and a crest of a blue demi-tiger armed and tufted gold, holding a broken sword of silver with wilted gold. Such heraldic symbols were traditionally associated with families of established status.
In contemporary times the surname Broomfield is still common in the United Kingdom and is also found in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a dispersion that largely resulted from migration waves in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The name continues to be borne by individuals whose ancestry can be traced back to the original Broomfield settlements of England.
Typical given names associated with the Broomfield surname
Male
- Christopher
- David
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Ann
- Catherine
- Christine
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Jane
- Linda
- Margaret
- Mary
- Nicola
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Broomfield in...
Braille
⠃⠗⠕⠕⠍⠋⠊⠑⠇⠙
Morse
-....-.--------..-.....-..-..
Semaphore
There are approximately 3,597 people named Broomfield in the UK. That makes it roughly the 2,556th most common surname in Britain. Around 55 in a million people in Britain are named Broomfield.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Broomfield
- Nick Broomfield - Film director
- Maurice Broomfield - Photographer (1916 to 2010)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.