Camp is an English surname taken from Latin roots. The name is found in Great Britain and in other places throughout the world settled by the English. According to the 2000 census there are fewer than 1300 Camps in the UK.[1] The 2000 US census puts the number at over 27,000, making it the 1087th most common name in America, after McDermott.[2] The Australian government currently reports 465 persons named Camp.[3] The governments of Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa do not currently provide lists of surnames as the UK and others do. Totals outside the English-speaking world are also unknown.
Origins
People with the surname Camp have no single origin or ancestor, the name instead having been chosen by different families over a few centuries.[4] The name is sometimes a variant spelling of "Kemp", which comes from the Old West Germanic "kampo-z", meaning "a contest, or fight", which in turn became the Old English "kemp", for a "fighter" or "soldier."[5][6] However, the name usually denotes a family whose house was on an open field, or "camp", rather than in the woods or elsewhere.[7] The word was borrowed from the Middle French "camp", its first use in English, in 1528, being for a "place where an army lodges temporarily", only later transferring to a non-military use sometime after 1560. The French "camp" (later "champ") is itself derived from the Latin "campus", which also meant an "open field", but also and especially an "open space for military exercise". Coincidentally, the word's martial sense had been borrowed by the Germanic tribes during their conflicts with the Romans to become the aforementioned "kampo-z".[5]
Throughout the English-speaking world, but especially the United States, the name is sometimes derived from other, often longer, European names (e.g. the Italian "Campesi" or the Dutch "Van de Kamp") which were changed during the process of cultural assimilation. Camp can also be a shortening or anglicizing of similar French names, such as "de Camp" and "du Camp".
