Cummings
An English and Scottish surname that usually began as a spelling variant of Cumming, with some lines also linked to French place-name ancestry.
The #403 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,893 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cummings is generally treated as a plural or variant form of Cumming, itself usually traced to a personal name rather than a place in many British lines. Some older writers also linked the name to a French origin, identifying it as a corruption of an old form connected with Comminges in southern France. In Irish materials, Cummings can also appear among anglicized forms related to Gaelic Mac Cúmáin / Cummin-type names, so the surname does not have a single universal source.
History
The name is well established in Scotland and in Scots-influenced English-speaking communities, and it spread widely through later migration to North America and elsewhere. Nineteenth-century surname writers often treated Cummings as simply a variant of Cumming, while some also proposed a French aristocratic or locational line. In Ireland, it can overlap in appearance with several Gaelic surnames that were anglicized into similar spellings, which adds to the name’s mixed history.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A number of old surname dictionaries grouped Cummings with a whole cluster of look-alike forms—Cumming, Cummins, Kimmins, and even MacCumming—showing how fluid spelling could be before modern standardization.
From the historical record
“Comineas Albus. Dixon. CUMMINGS. See Cumming. CUMNOR. A parish in co. Berks. CUMBER. Supposed by Ferguson to be the same as Cumber. CUNDALL. CUNDELL. A parish in Yorkshire. CUNNIGAN. In Ireland often con- founded with Cunningham, though it is a”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Cummings
- E. E. Cummings (1894–1962)
- Jim Cummings (b. 1952)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.