A male name. an Aramaic word signifying ‘twin’; in the Gospels the name of one of the twelve apostles, also known as Didymus, the Greek for a twin. Eusebius says that his real name was Judah, and his nickname may well have been used by his companions to distinguish him from the two other Judahs, Judah the brother of James (St Jude), and Judah of Kerioth (Judas Iscariot). Thomas is found in England before the Norman Conquest only as a priest’s name, but with the advent of the Normans it soon came into general use. Two of the earliest Norman Archbishops of York were so named, Thomas of Bayeux (d. 1100) and his nephew and successor (d. 1112). In the later Middle Ages Thomas was one of the commonest men’s names, and this was owing to the fame of St Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas à Becket, 1118— 70), whose martyrdom and canonization made Canterbury the greatest object of pilgrimage in the country. From the 13th C onwards Thomas has been one of the half-dozen commonest men’s names in England (cf. the expression Every Tom, Dick, and Harry). Most of the church dedications in this name were originally to St Thomas of Canterbury, but Henry VIII, who had a special dislike to the memory of the recalcitrant archbishop, had them altered to St Thomas the Apostle. The usual medieval abbreviation of Thomas was Thome, later (from the 14th C) Tom. The surnames Thomas, Thom, Thoms, Tomson, Tompson, Thomson, Thompson, Tomlin, Thomlin, Tomlinson, Thomlinson, Tomkin, Thomkin, Tompkin, Thompkin, Tomkins, Thomkins, Tompkins, Thompkins are some of those formed from it.

Thomas Domesday Book 1086, Curia Regis Rolls 1199-1220, Hundred Rolls 1273. Thome Hundred Rolls 1273, Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Thomasin, Thomelin Exchequer Rolls 1306. Tom Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Thom Coventry Mysteries 15th C.

(See also towards the end of the notice on William.) Its popularity may be attributed to the prevalence of Thomas among the saints; that prevalence to the fame of the Apostle ‘whom we know by the Aramaic and Greek epithets Thomas and Didymus, both meaning a twin. Tradition declares that his fellow-twin was a sister called Lysia’ (Yonge). ‘An ancient Syriac work, the Acta Thomae, describes him as having laboured as a missionary in India and having suffered martyrdom there. The shrine... commemorating his death still stands near Madras. The ancient churches of Southern India are often known as “Christians of St. Thomas’” (Harvey).

According to some the name of the apostle θωμας is derived from a Syriac word of Hebrew origin, viz. from חאם, tham, doubt, because of his doubting, and they say he was on that account called in Greek Διδυμος, i. e. of two hearts. But the Hebrew tham (pl. thami) is a twin, and the Greek Didymus has the same signification; and there is a tradition that the apostle, whose real name is said to have been Judas, was a twin-brother of Jesus, or that he had a twin-sister Lydia (Lysia? ), the former being the most probable. Dr. William Smith says the word חאמא, Thoma, means a twin; and so it is translated in John xi. 16, xxi. 2, o διδυμος; and he adds, “In Cant. vii. 4, the name is simply Tham, exactly our ‘Tom.’ The frequency of the name in England is derived, not from the apostle, but from St. Thomas of Canterbury.”

Tom'-as, a twin. One of the apostles. See Matt x. 3; Luke vi. 15.

Meaning: a twin.

A Aramaic name, meaning: Twin. (Phoenician) Sun god. (He­brew) A twin.

A Gaelic name: Tomas, Tàmhus (M‘F.), Middle Gaelic Tamas (1467 MS.). Hence Mac-tavish, Mac-combie.