Bowling
Usually a locational surname for someone from Bowling near Bradford in Yorkshire.
The #1,311 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,537 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most commonly explained as a habitational name from Bowling, a place near Bradford in Yorkshire. The place-name itself is old English in form and was already established by the late medieval period. In surname use, it simply marked a person as being "of Bowling."
History
The historical excerpts specifically tie the surname to Bowling in Yorkshire and give late-14th-century and 16th-century examples of people identified that way. As with many English locational surnames, it spread beyond its original district as bearers moved to other parts of England, especially into urban records and later parish and civic registers. The name is not especially rare in modern America, where it is usually inherited rather than a sign of recent place origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is recorded in medieval and early modern sources with spellings that can look quite different from today’s standard form, including forms ending in -yng or -ing.
From the historical record
“Kirby'. Que.t, p.' 14. (3) Local, 'of Bowling,' q.v. 1519, Chriitttpher Herd a iaire Lie. (London'”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances