Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Ramesham 1086 DB 1154–89 AD 1235–6 Fees 1244 Ass 1265 Ipm 1266 Cl 1268,1288 Ass 1291 Tax 1296 Ipm 1299 Cl 1311 Pat 1428 FA

• Ramesham als. Rammesham 1299 Ipm

• Rammesham 1238 Ch 1280 Ass 1316 Drew 1332 SR 1340 NI 1350 Ch 1431 FA

• Ramnesham 1268 Ass

• Raunnesham (sic) 1485 Pat

• Remmesham 1279,1318 Drew

• Ram(m)ysham 1288 Ass 15 Winch 1510 DCM

• Rampsham 1401 IpmR 1431 AD 1504 Ipm

• Ramspaum (sic) 1412 FA

• Ramsham 1418,1463 Pat 1471 IpmR 1474 Pat 1505 Ipm

• Ramsham or Rammesham 1466 Pat

• Ramshaump 1412 FA

• Ramsam 1418,1462,1475 Pat

• Ramsan 1479 IpmR

• Rampisham 1603 Ct 1664 HTax

Etymology

The second el. is probably OE  hamm in the sense 'enclosure, river meadow'. The first is uncertain. It could be OE  ramm 'a ram' (gen.sg. rammes ), thus literally 'enclosure of the ram' (i.e. 'enclosure for rams'), or OE  hramsa 'wild garlic' if this plant is likely to have flourished here.Alternatively the first el. could be OE  hræfn 'a raven' (gen.sg. hræfnes ) or the pers.n. Hræfn (gen.sg. Hræfnes ) derived from it, in either case with regular early assimilation of -fn - > -mn - > -mm . In any case it might be noted that the epenthetic -p - of the modern spelling first makes its appearance in 1401.