Recorded in a number of spelling forms including Crum, Crumb, Crome, Croom, Croome, and the diminutives Cromett and Crommett, this is an English medieval surname. It has at least three possible origins. The first being a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of hooks and hangers. Here the derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th century word "crumb" meaning bent or crooked. Secondly the name may have originally been given as a nickname for a person who suffered from some physical deformities. The Medieval period was not a time of political or social correctness, and whilst most of the particularly vicious or even obscene surnames have either died out or been disguised, a few do survive, and this may be one of them. A third possibility which certainly applies to some nameholders is that the name is of locational origin either from Croom in East Yorkshire, so called from the Olde English "crohum" meaning a narrow valley, or from Croome in Worcestershire, from the Welsh "crwm" meaning crooked, but referring to a river. Early examples of the surname recording include: Simon de Crombe, in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Worcestershire, in 1275, Luke Croom of Essex in the Subsidy Rolls of that county in 1309, and later William Cromett, who married Sophia Tute at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, London, on December 21st 1697. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Robert le Crumbe. This was dated 1199, in the Assize Court Rolls of Staffordshire, during the reign of King Richard the Lionheart, 1189 - 1199. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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