TIMMS
Timms is a surname of British origin that can be traced back to the medieval period. The name is primarily patronymic, meaning it denotes descent from an ancestor whose given name was Tim or Timothy.
In English usage, Timothy is derived from the Greek Timotheos, which translates literally as “honouring God” or “one who fears God”. Consequently, the surname Timms indicates a son or descendant of someone named Tim or Timothy, signalling a line of Christian worship and respect within the family.
The earliest documentary evidence of the name appears in the Subsidy Tax rolls of Warwickshire dated 1332, in an entry for a certain William Tymmes. This record demonstrates that the surname was in use in England during the reign of King Edward the Third, well before the Reformation.
Other medieval records also provide evidence of the name in historically significant communities. A student named Richard Tyms is listed in the Oxford University register of 1565, while the christening of James Timms at St. Sepulchre Church in London on 4 April 1699 records the family in the capital. The marriage of Edward Timbs to Henrietta Maria Smith at St. Antholins church in London on 1 July 1752 further illustrates the spread of the surname within urban society.
In addition to the English patronymic form, a number of variant spellings exist, including Timbs, Tims, Timmes, Tymms, Tyms and Timson. The name’s earliest Germanic roots are also evident; the nickname Timmo or Tima was a shortened form of the Old Germanic personal name Dietmar, meaning “famous people” from the elements theudo (people) and meri (fame). This compound name was used in the Dark Ages, suggesting a broader cultural and linguistic context for the surname.
In the Old English language, the term tíma referred to a small parcel of land, typically about a quarter of an acre or a specific division within a larger estate. The resultant occupational surname likely identified a person connected to the management or ownership of such land, signifying a link between the name and agrarian society. Geographic concentration of the name in eastern counties such as Essex, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, as well as its later presence in Scotland, further underscores this association with landholding communities.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, emigration from Britain carried the surname to various parts of the Commonwealth and the United States. British settlers who arrived in Australia from the early 1700s, and later migrants to Canada, the Caribbean, and India, typically preserved the spelling Timms while occasionally adopting local variants such as Timmins or Timas. In North America, census data from 1880 shows that the name reached the United States, and by the early twentieth century it was most common in North Dakota and Alaska, ranking 656th and 1662nd respectively.
Today, Timms remains an uncommon but persistent surname within the United Kingdom and other English‑speaking nations. In addition to its traditional patronymic usage, the name has occasionally been adopted as a first name. Distant relatives of the name appear in creative professions, with writers, composers, and poets adopting the surname in contemporary cultural contexts.
Accompanying the primary surname are still other historically documented variants that reflect linguistic evolution and migration. These include Timm and its derivatives such as Teem, Teems, Teemes, Teemose, Teemoz, Timme, Timmo, Timmis, many of which have Scandinavian, Germanic or Dutch origins, demonstrating how the core name integrated into diverse linguistic traditions while maintaining its core identification with descendants of Timothy.
Typical given names associated with the Timms surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Matthew
- Michael
- Paul
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Christine
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Joanne
- Julie
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Nicola
- Rebecca
- 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 Timms in...
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There are approximately 7,537 people named Timms in the UK. That makes it roughly the 1,242nd most common surname in Britain. Around 116 in a million people in Britain are named Timms.
Surname type: From name of parent
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Timms
- Sally Timms - Musician
- Stephen Timms - Politician
- John Timms - Cricketer (1906 to 1980)
- Brian Timms - Cricketer
- Richard Timms - Cricketer
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.