English place name from Old Norse hlatha, meaning 'at the barns.'
Latham is an English topographic surname turned given name, derived from the Old Norse word hlatha, meaning a barn or granary, combined with the suffix -ham denoting a homestead or village. The name essentially meant "at the barns" — a place name describing where a family lived or held land. It entered English through the Danelaw settlements of the ninth and tenth centuries, when Norse-speaking settlers planted their vocabulary across northern and eastern England in place names that have endured to the present day.
As a surname, Latham has been well-established in Lancashire and Yorkshire for centuries, borne by landowners, merchants, and later by public figures. The American astronomer and astronautical pioneer Woodbine Latham and various politicians and jurists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries carried the name, lending it an association with professional distinction. Like many solid Anglo-Saxon surnames, it migrated into use as a given name during the nineteenth century, when parents on both sides of the Atlantic began raiding the surname registry for first names that sounded substantial and individualistic.
Latham has a sturdy, unhurried quality — two syllables that open broadly and close cleanly. It belongs to a family of names (Graham, Lanham, Pelham) that feel simultaneously aristocratic and grounded. In the contemporary landscape of surname-as-first-name fashion, Latham stands out for its genuine historical depth and its quietly distinctive sound, appealing to parents who want something rooted in real geography and history rather than invented novelty.