Combs

Combs is an English surname, a variant of Coombs, which itself derives from the Old English cumb meaning "valley" and is the name of several places in England. As such, Combs is a topographic surname, originally given to someone who lived near a valley or in one of the places called Coomb or Combe (the root of the related name). The spelling variation reflects the common process where surnames with local origins developed multiple forms based on dialectal pronunciation and scribal variation in Middle English.

Geographically, Combs appears as an English place name in several locations: a small village in Chapel-en-le-Frith parish, High Peak borough, Derbyshire; a village and civil parish in Mid Suffolk district, Suffolk; and a neighbourhood of Thornhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire. In the United States, it is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Arkansas, as well as a separate unincorporated community and coal town in Perry County, Kentucky, and also the name of a township in Carroll County, Missouri. These American place names often represent settlements that were named after early settlers with the surname Combs.