The Origin of the Name

At the time John Bynum and other Bynums emigrated to America, the surname was clearly some version of “Baynham”, which was pronounced “Bynam” according to several English authorities.   The way the name is spelled in 17th century records seems to depend largely on whether the individual Bynum could write his own name or not.  Where they could write, the name typically appears with the "ay" or "ai".  Where the recording clerk chose the spelling it was normally spelled with a "y" or "i".  It is found in the 17th century as Baynham, Byneham, Bineham, Binham, Binam, Bainham, Bynam and similar variants - all of which are pronounced the same way.   It’s interesting that the penultimate vowel was almost never recorded as “u” for the first few generations.   In fact, the name was rarely spelled “Bynum” until the 1700s and not regularly spelled that way until the 1800s.   By the early 1800s, virtually all descendants were using “Bynum”, with the exception of two branches of the family which retained the English spelling of “Bainham” and "Baynham".

 The various branches of the family have legends that the name, and the family itself, is variously Welsh, Scotch, English and Irish.  The reality is that the original immigrants were all English.   The name was almost certainly derived from the Welsh and had been present in the southwestern counties of England since about 1400.   The first few generations in America generally retained this spelling – or something close to it – before “Bynum” became the more common spelling. 

The Origin of English Surnames (P. H. Reaney, 1967) explains that many English surnames were formed from Welsh given names by prefixing the patronymic “ab”(before vowels) or “ap” (before consonants).  Eventually, the vowel was dropped.   For example, ap Hugh became Pugh, ab Owen became Bowen, and ap Rhys became Price.   “…the most prolific [of these names] being from Old Welsh Enniaun…This survives as Ennion, Eynon, Inions, Anyan, Onians, Onions, and Hennion and, compounded with ap or ab, as Pinnion, Beynon, Benian, Benyan, and Binyon…In 1455 in Worcestershire and in 1486 in Gloucestershire this acquired a pseudo-topographical form Baynham which still survives.”   The Dictionary of British Surnames (P. H. Reaney, 1958) by the same author gives the same derivation, adding “in spite of appearance, Baynham is not local in origin.”   That is, he claims that Baynham is not derived from a place name, rather just the reverse.

The National Library of Wales, located in the charmingly-named town of Aberystwyth, kindly provided its opinions on the name.   While agreeing with Reaney’s comment above, they added that ab Enniiaun   produced Bennion as the common form in North Wales, and Beynon in South Wales.   The Welsh use of patronymics continued well into the 19^th century, so names like Baynham developed first outside Wales in the adjoining English border counties, probably starting in the 15^th century.    Variants like Baynam, Beynom, and Bynom do appear in South Wales, but only over the last two centuries.   They quoted Welsh Surnames in the Border Counties of Wales (H. B. Guppy, 1907):   “Eynon and Beynon have undergone curious changes in England, producing such divergent variants as Haynes and Onions and Baines, Baynham and Beniams…Baynham is an old Gloucestershire and Herefordshire surname.   The son of one Robert ap Eignon was Robert Baynham…Thomas Baynham was married in 1437, hence this is an early instance of the name.   Another even earlier instance of Baynham as a surname is [in 1421 in Herefordshire].   Thomas Baynham was the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1476,   Laurence Bynion or Benyon or Benion or Bygnion was at the University of Oxford in 1581.”   Note that all these English counties are clustered together next to South Wales.   The same book lists Baynham, Banham, Beynon, and similar variants as originating in the border counties.   It does not list any version of Bynum at all.   Pronunciation, as we know from contemporary poems that presumably rhymed, would have been pretty close to “bye-nom”.   See The Mother Tongue (Bill Bryson, 1990).

The Visitation of Gloucestershire, 1623 contains a lengthy genealogy that begins with one Raffe ap Eignon.   Four generations later, roughly in the year 1400, some of the descendents were still using “ap Eignon” at their surname, while others had adopted “Baynham”.   There follows eight generations of Baynhams, through the early 1600s.   (No, there is no evidence of a relationship with the Virginia Baynhams.)   The Knights of England (W. A. Shaw) lists four knights of this name, all spelled “Baynham”.   Three of the four are in the genealogy of Raffe ap Eignon.   The fourth’s genealogy is unknown to me.

Just to give equal time, I should note that I have seen the theory that Bynum evolved from a place-name, though all the above authorities dispute this.   There was a town in Norfolk named Binneham according to the 1086 Domesday Book, as well as a town in Nottinghamshire called Bingheha.   The latter eventually became spelled Bingham, then Byneham in the Vale.   When I visited those towns in the late 1980s, I could not find a single person in the local phone books named Baynham, Bynum, or anything similar.

It seems clear, then, that “Bynum” became a uniquely American spelling.   It is also a relatively unusual name. The first census of the United States in 1790 lists a total of 24 persons of the name, by one spelling or another – one each in Massachusetts and Maryland, five in Virginia, fourteen in North Carolina and three in South Carolina.

I would note in the case of Jamestown, Surry County, and other early Virginia records, that many of the early immigrants could not write their own names.  The spellings that appear in the records are therefore whatever the recording clerk decided to use.  In the case of Surry County, the first two generations could not read or write, so each successive clerk used his own preferred spelling of the name.  We can very nearly follow the changes in clerks by watching how the spelling of the name changed.  The earliest signature we have in Surry is quite clearly spelled "Bynam", but nearly all spelled it "Bynum" within a generation.