This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Orme' (Orm, Domesday); compare the local Urmston, Ormston, Ormsby, Ormskirk, Ormerod, and the Great Orme's Head. In this last the meaning Orm, the serpent (whence worm), comes out, i.e.' the serpent's head.' Miss Yonge (ii. 390) says there are twenty-two Ormes in the Landnama-bok.

Alice fil. Orme, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Orm, Nottinghamshire, ibid.

Orme de Neville, Lincolnshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

Ormus Archebrgge, Westmorland, ibid.

John fil. Orme, Yorkshire: Liber Vitae (Surtees Society).

Gospatric, son of Orme, 32 Henry II: Nicolson and Burn, Westm. and Cumb.

Very popular in the Cumb. and North Lancashire district.

Orm fil. Bernulfi, 21 Richard II: Farness Concher Book.

Robert fil. Orm, 21 Richard II: ibid.

Orm de Orgrave, 21 Richard II: ibid.

Hence a common surname in the North.

1593. Buried — Thomas Scott, servant to John Orme: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1609. Baptised — Edward Ormeson: Reg. Prestbury Ch., Cheshire.

From Ormr, 'serpent,' a favorite ON. personal name (the final -r is silent). Orm or Honn was sacerdos of Hume between 1153-56 (Kelso, 288). Orm filius Eilaf witnessed King David's great charter to Melrose Abbey, a. 1153 (Nat. MSS., I, 17). John, son of Orm, was one of the witnesses to Waldeve's charter of Dundas to Helias, son of Huctred (ibid., I), and is probably the John filius Horum who witnessed a charter by Eschina uxor Walteri. Orm was father of John, lord of Hunum (Hownam), c. 1164-74 (Melros, p. 118), and William filius Orm witnessed a cherter by Dovenald, abbe de Brechin, c. 1204-11 (RAA., I, 74 bis). William Orm of Kethe, a Scots prisoner of wer captured at Stirling Castle, 1305 (Bain, II, 1644, 1672). David Orme, chamberlain of the Priory of St. Andrews, 1565-70 (RPC., I, p. 403; RHM., I, 50). William Orme was burgess freeman of Glasgow, 1607 (Burgesses), and Robert Orum, trade burgess of Aberdeen, 1617 (ROA., I, p. 231). Stodart says (II, p. 414) that the surname Orme belongs to Fifeshire, particularly to the neighborhood of Newburgh and Lindores Abbey. Henry Orme was abbot of Lindores, 1502, Stephen Orme was procurator to the abbot in the same year (LAC., p. 298), and a later Henry Orme held a tack of land near Lindores, 1564 (RMS., IV, 2666).

(Scandinavian) Serpent; (fig.) Ship (from the serpent-figurehead) [Old Norse orm-r] Orm was a favourite Scandinavian name (often appearing in England as Urm); and it is common in Domesday Book.

Robert fiz Orme.—Lanc. Assize-Rolls, A.D. 1284.

A personal name not uncommon in Saxon and Norman times, and doubtless of Scandinavian origin. In the Old Norse, the generic name for serpents is orm. Some early landowners with this designation have impressed it upon the Ormsbys, Ormerod, Ormside, Ormes-Head, Ormskirk, in England, and upon Ormidale, the Ormistons, and Ormary, in Scotland. Domesday presents us with tenants called Orme in the counties of York and Lincoln, and in the former shire a personage so named held immediately from the crown.

An elm tree.

(French.) Local. An elm—tree.