Where the Thomas name comes from

Thomas began as a nickname that stuck. It is the Aramaic t'oma, meaning twin, and it was what the apostle was called rather than what he was christened. The th spelling exists because the Greek gospels wrote the first letter as a theta, and the English habit of saying it as a plain t came from French. The surname belongs to English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Dutch and Danish families alike, and it is the ninth most common in the United Kingdom, third in France, and a family name among the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala.