Beorma

Beorma (/ˈbeɪ.ɔːrmə/; Old English pronunciation: [ˈbeːo̯rma]) is the name most commonly given to the 7th century Anglo-Saxon founder of the settlement now known as the English city of Birmingham. This assumption is based on the belief that the original settlement was known as Beorma's ham ("the homestead of Beorma") or Beorma -inga -ham ("the homestead of the tribe or people of Beorma").

It is also the name of an Anglo-Saxon leader who owned Beorma's Farm, from which Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire got its name (Barton appears twice in the Domesday Book, as Bermintune and as Burmintune).

As the person after whom Birmingham was named, there are three possible answers to this question. Beorma could have been the founder or ancestor of a tribe, the beormingas, long before its arrival in what was to become Anglo-Saxon Mercia; the ealdorman or head of a tribe or clan of kinsmen who travelled together for the purpose of migration (and who settled in Mercia); or the leader of a (possibly mercenary) group with whom he shared a contractual obligation (the frankpledge) to one of the Mercian kings.

Beorma variously means, in Old English, "fermented", "head of beer", "yeasty" or "frothy", from which the modern English words barm and barmy are derived. The assertion that Beorma was the founder of Birmingham arose from a post-war challenge to the way Anglo-Saxon place-names had been constructed. It was not until 1940 that Eilert Ekwall noted that:

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