Hallam is a locational surname for a region situated near the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire about 10kms west of Nottingham and about 45 kms southerly of Sheffield. Place names associated with this area are Kirk Hallam (referred to as Kirkehalum as early as 1242) and West Hallam (referred to as Westhalum at least as early as 1230 Pipe Rolls of that county).

Another locality that contained the Hallam name were the old areas of Upper Hallam and Nether Hallam that are now located within the confines of the broader Sheffield city.

there are various views as to the origin of the name, here is a collection

•            Hallam (English or Scandinavian) Dweller at the Slopes [Old English healum = Old Norse hallum, dat. pls. of heal and hall-r resp.]

•            Hallam, which gave its name to the district around Sheffield, is called Hallum in Domesday Book.  Ref: Harrison, Henry 1912 Surnames of the United Kingdom

•            The Hallam name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century 'halum' or ''halh' meaning a 'nook' or 'remote valley'.

•            Hallam. English (Chiefly S. Yorkshire ad E. Midlands: regional name for the district in S Yorkshire around Sheffield and Ecclesfield so called, or habitation name from the town of this name in Derbyshire.  The Derbyshire name is from OE [Old English] halam, dat. Pl. [dative plural] of Halh = nook or recess.  The Yorkshire district, sometimes called Hallamshire, is from hallum, dat. Pl. of hall = stone or rock.  Ref: Hanks P & Hodges F, 1988 Dictionary of Surnames.

•            surname is derived from a geographical locality.'of Hallam,' i.e. Upper Hallam, a scattered township in the old parish of Sheffield.

•            Hallam, which is a common place - name in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in Derbyshire, is a surname also well represented on the Derbyshire border in the vicinity of Sheffield.  Ref: Guppy, H.G. 1890 Homes of Family Names in Great Britain

•            There are parishes so called in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and that part of the West Riding of the latter county which containsthe parishes of Sheffield and Ecclesfield is known as Hallamshire.  Ref: Lower, M.A. 1838-1860 Patronymica Britannica

•            Upper Hallam, a township in the old parish of Sheffield.  Ref: Black, G.F. 1946  The Surnames of Scotland

•            Hallam, (English) One who came from Hallam or Halam (corner or remote valley), the names of several places in England.  Smith, E.C. 1956  Dictionary of American Family Names

Frequency of the HALLAM surname in the UK

Maternal Line – mtDNA

I am commencing to group or cluster the mtDNA results of project members.  For this to be useful and hence successful, it is important that all Project members fill in their ancestral information under Genealogy then Earliest Known Ancestors under your account settings.  Scroll down to the section headed “Direct Maternal Ancestor”.  Please enter name, approx years of birth/death, country of origin (of the Direct maternal ancestor) and also the location (town, city, region) within that country for your most distant known DIRECT LINE MATERNAL ANCESTOR in the section for   Also please note that your direct maternal ancestor is the name of your mother's mother's mother etc, through a female line only - it is always a woman.  Some project members have included here their most distant known MALE ancestor, which for the purposes of mtDNA is irrelevant. 

However, with regards to grouping members, without the full mitochondrial sequence (FMS) results it may not be possible to put your results into a subgrouping other than those of a major Haplogroup, such as H,R, K, T etc.  This will be the case with many of the people who tested some time ago.

If you are interested in your Maternal line, then I would strongly encourage members to upgrade their existing results to Full Mitochondrial Sequence (FMS) or for new testers to purchase this test.  If you have done a FMS it is helpful for the admins if you open up your Coding Region results to be viewed by project administrators. It is your choice whether you permit us to look at your FMS results, but these are what are most often necessary to assign you to subclades. While not an expert in medical matters, I am advised that only in very rare cases do these reveal any potential medical issues, and most testers choose to include these for mitochondrial DNA-project administrators.  In any event, your Coding Region data will not be shown publicly under the FTDNA settings.

Finally, while I am happy to assist where I can, it is also very worthwhile for project members to join the mtDNA project that matches their Haplogroup and this is strongly encouraged.