This surname is derived from a nickname. One of a few descriptive French names compounded with -jambe. i.e. leg; compare Beljambe, 'handsome leg.' 'Edward Longshanks was Edward "avez les long jaumbes"' (v. Loweron Foljambe'). Shankswas the English form; compare Sheepshanks, Pyshank, &c. Foljambe seems to be 'fool-legged.' Almost all the names compounded with -shank and -jambe are of an unkindly or satirical character. Lower says. 'Sir Thomas Foljambe was bailiff of the High Peak, Derbyshire, in 1272.'

Thomas Folejambe, Derbyshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Foleiambe, Derbyshire, ibid.

Geoffrey Fulgeam, Visitation of Yorks, 1563.

1533- John Fulgeam, rector of Clery, Norfolk: History of Norfolk.

1596. Baptised — Odrlia, d. Hercules Foljambe: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1774. Married — Francis Farrand Foljambe and Mary Arabella Thornhagh: St. George, Hanover Square.

(Anglo-French-Latin) lit. Silly Leg [Old French fol (mod. fou), silly, foolish; Latin foll-is, a windbag + jambe, Low Latin gamba, a leg]

Jambe is French for leg, and fol, folle is often employed in Old French for something useless or of little value, as ' farine folle,' mill-dust, 'figue folle,' a good-for-nothing fig. Hence Foljambe was probably a sobriquet allusive to a useless or defective Leg. We find in the H.R. the antithetical Bele-jambe, or "handsome leg," as a surname, and indeed the jambe, or leg, gave rise to other sobriquets and family names in the middle ages. As a remarkable instance, in the far-famed Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, temp. Rich. II., one of the witnesses calls Edward I. "the good king Edward with the long legs," - ovez les long jaumbes. This family were doubtless of Norman origin, and the pedigree is traced to Sir Thomas Foljambe, who was bailiff of the High Peak, co. Derby, in 1272.

A corruption of Foljambe.

Full James, Fool James?

Fulgeam, or Fowlchampe, from Fulgent, originally Fulmechon, near Alençon. William and Josceline de Fulmechon of Normandy, 1180; Aubry, Gilbert, and others of the name, 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Thomas, Robert Folejambe of England, c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

Amongst the ancient knightly families now scantily represented in the county is that of Foljambe. The Foljambes of Walton, in the parish of Chesterfield, frequently served as high sheriffs of Derbyshire in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries; in 1633 Walton Hall and its estate passed out of the family (H.). Early this century the Foljambes came into the possession of the Broadlow Ash estate (G.).