Gooding
An English surname most likely from the old personal name Godwin or a related Germanic baptismal name.
The #4,942 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,345 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Historical surname writers most often treat Gooding as a variant or corruption of Godwin, an old Germanic personal name built from elements meaning "God" and "friend" or "protector." Some also connect it more generally with forms like Godin, another old baptismal name of Germanic origin. In this view, the surname began as a descendant of an ancestor’s given name rather than from the modern English word "good."
History
The name appears in English records in several spellings, including Godding, Gooden, Goodinge, and Goodwyn-related forms, showing the usual medieval instability of surnames. It is found in English and later Anglo-American usage, and the spelling Gooding became established alongside related Goodwin variants. Nineteenth-century surname books do not give a single unanimous explanation, but they consistently place it in the same family of old Germanic personal names.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname dictionaries often list Gooding right next to Goodwin because the two names were historically close enough in spelling and pronunciation to blur into one another.
From the historical record
“are of German extraction. GOODING. Probably the same as Godin, an ancient Teutonic baptismal appellation. GOURLAY. This name, which is pro- bably Norman, was introduced into Scot- land by William the Lion, after his cap- tivity. Nisbet. GOWN". A contraction of Gowan. GRANDIDGB. A modern corruption of Grandorge.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom