Golding
Usually an English surname that developed as a form of Gold or Goldwin, with the -ing ending arising through old nickname and spelling changes.
The #6,394 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 58,024 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is generally explained as an English development from Gold or from Goldwin, the old personal name meaning “gold” + “friend.” In older surname forms, the ending -ing could appear through sound change or spelling expansion, so Goldwin could come to be written as Golding. Earlier writers also treated Golding as a variant of Gold, rather than a direct occupational name.
History
19th-century surname writers such as Bardsley and Lower connected Golding with older personal-name forms rather than with the precious metal itself. The surname is established in England by the medieval period and remains most familiar in English-speaking countries. Modern bearers include the novelist and Nobel laureate William Golding.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley specifically compared Golding with other surnames where an old -win ending was reshaped into -ing, such as Gooding from Goodwin.
From the historical record
“arose. GOLDING. See Gold. GOLDRIDGE. Goklerlcus occurs in Germany in the IX. cent, as a personal name. GOLDSBURY. Goldsborough, a parish in Yorkshire. GOLDSBY. GOULDSBY. A parish in Lincolnshire, sometimes corrupted to GolcebJ^”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom