This unusual name is one of the variant forms of the more familiar surname 'Broom' or 'Broome'. As such, the name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and can be either a topographical or a locational surname. If the former, the name denotes residence near a place where broom or gorse grew, derived from the Old English pre 7th Century 'brom', broom, gorse. As a locational surname, Broom(e) and Brum derive from any one of the various places called Broom, in Bedfordshire, County Durham and Worcestershire, Broome, in Norfolk, Shropshire and Warwickshire, and Brome, in Suffolk. Most of the places are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Brume' or 'Brom', all share the same meaning and derivation from the Old English 'brom', broom, thus (place of) broom or gorse. The surname development includes Brom (1221) and Brume (1275). The marriage of Rebecca Brum and John Woolnough was recorded at Hoxne in Suffolk on August 31st 1668. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Brome, which was dated 1193, The Leicestershire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Richard 1, 'The Lionheart', 1189-1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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