A Muslin surname which originally was a form of showing respect to a woman. For some older unmarried ladies the name developed into their surname. A spelling variation for Begum would include Baigum. The Begum surname is very popular in the far eastern countries of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In England the name is concentrated in Somerset County and in the city of London. Within the United States the those with the Begum surname live primarily in New York New Jersey, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Ohio. Famous: Hadhrat Nusrat Jehan Begum (a spiritualist leader of Islam during the early 20th century), Firoza Begum (a singer and music composer from Bangladesh) and Nawab Dadibu Begum (a ruler of India in the name of her son during the mid-1800s).