The villages name origin is unsure possibly, 'Luda's homestead/village' but perhaps, 'homestead/village on the Hlude (= noisy one)', an old name for Womack Water.

The village gave its name to a Ham-class minesweeper, HMS Ludham and also, in geology, to an age/stage (the Ludhamian) in the British regional subdivision of the Pleistocene Series/Epoch.

[5] The airfield at Ludham was built by Richard Costain Ltd and became operational in November 1941 as a second satellite for the main fighter station at RAF Coltishall sited north of Norwich, three tarmac-covered concrete runways and ancillary buildings being built on the land which had belonged to Fritton Farm.

Ludham was one of the film locations for the 1954 movie Conflict of Wings starring John Gregson and Muriel Pavlow.

Adapted from the novel by Don Sharp, the story takes place in a Norfolk country village where the locals decide to fight against a proposal to build an air-firing range on an island used as a bird sanctuary.