The surname Sweetingham and its variants Sweetenham and Sweetenam, do not, at present, appear to be related to the one 'e' name Swetingham/Swetenham. The latter is rooted in Cheshire and is said to have 'been seated at Swettenham in Cheshire, before the Conquest, and there the male succession continued till 1788. The name is still borne by a descendant of the female line who is (in 1860) the owner of Swettenham.' (Lower, Mark Antony, A Dictionary of Surnames Wordsworth Editions, Ware (1988) p. 336.) This hamlet of Swettenham lies between Macclesfield and Crewe. When one considers how the pronunciation is altered by the addition of the extra 'e', it becomes clearer that the two names are likely to be distinct, rather than variants of the same name. Despite this and the completely different geographical distribution, surname dictionaries group Sweetingham and Swetingham together and appear not to be able to establish a meaning. The closest attempt is that by Mark Lower (Lower, Mark Antony, A Dictionary of Surnames Wordsworth Editions, Ware (1988) p. 336.), who considers the surname Sweeting to stem from the old Anglo Saxon personal name Suet; Sueting being 'son of Suet'. Thus, one supposes, Sweetingham is the hamlet or farmstead of the son of Suet.