Recorded in an amazing range of spellings including Comberbeach, Comberbach, Cumberpatch, Camberbirch, Cumberidge, Cumberledge, Comberedge, Cumberbatch, and no doubt others, this is an English surname. It is locational and originates either from a township in the parish of Great Budworth, Cheshire called Comberbach, or from some now 'lost' medieval place of which the only public memory in the late 20th century is the surname itself. It is true that unusual place names have and continue to breed, unusual surnames, some so far removed from the base form as to be almost unrecognizeable, but even so this village name has exceeded the norm. There are many English place names which commence with Comber, including Combermere also in Cheshire, Comberford in Staffordshire and Comberton in Worcestershire being examples. The name appears to mean the place of the Cumbrians, and it is interesting that most of the 'Comber' places are in a line south from Cumbria itself. As to when the surname was first recorded is unclear. The Wills Register of Cheshire gives a Roger Comberbach of Malbank in 1603, but this is several centuries too late for a surname formation date. We would have expected to find much earlier examples. Amongst the more unusual examples are those that seem to be London dialectals such as George Cumberidge who married Mary Tomling at St Leonards Shoreditch, on October 1oth 1767, and John Cumberpatch who married Elizabeth Sones at St Georges Hanover Square, Westminster, on July 1st 1795..

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