Bunting
An old surname probably from a nickname for a short, plump person, though some early writers also thought of a local origin.
The #4,072 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,386 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest old explanation treats Bunting as a nickname surname, likely from a word meaning short, thick, or plump. Lower explicitly links it with Scottish and northern usage for a small stout person, and Bardsley suggests a Norman-French pet form such as bon-et-on, though that proposal is more speculative. Another possibility is a local or habitational origin, but the nickname sense fits the historical evidence best overall.
History
The surname is attested in medieval records, including a Thomas Bunting who swore allegiance in 1296. It appears in several English and Scottish surname traditions, and later writers connected it with the nursery phrase “Baby Bunting,” though that rhyme is not proof of the surname’s origin. The name also survives as a modern English surname and is unrelated to the bird name in origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname writer even used Bunting as an example of a name that had been misunderstood through folk-etymology and nursery-rhyme association.
From the historical record
“King John. B.L.G. BUNTING. Probably local; huntin is however a Scottish word meaning short and thick, as " a huntin brat," a plump child. Jamieson. The Bunteins Avere of Ardoch in the middle ages. A Thomas Bunting swore allegiance to EdAvard I. of England, in 1296. Bunting Avithout a pre- fix occurs in H.R. BUNYAN.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom