Given name & surname · also Middle English
Lum
“pool”
Lum is a surname with more than one origin. It is used in English and Albanian.
Meaning & origin
What it means
As an English surname, Lum goes back to Middle English Lumb, meaning “pool.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Lum has more than one origin: as an English surname, it comes from Middle English Lumb; as a Chinese surname, it comes from Cantonese.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
In English usage, Lum is a diminutive of Columbus.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Lum through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 493
- 493 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1884
- 17 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1961. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 227 as a first name in 2020; 7,681 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Lum’s family of names
In English usage, Lum is a diminutive of Columbus. In English usage, Lum as a surname has a related form in LIMB. In English usage, Lum is a shortened form of Columbus.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Lum
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Lum, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Lafe
“one who is on time”
>99% boys
Pink
“one who is healthy”
97% boys · 3% girls
Pembroke
“from the broken hill” · “from the headland”
>99% boys
Garfield
“from the spear field”
>99% boys
Grover
“from the grove of trees”
>99% boys
Luckham
“homestead”
—
Ludlam
“loud, noisy”
—
Gumm
“man”
—