Schilling
A surname that may come from the word for a coin, but in many cases it likely developed from an older personal name or place-name.
The #2,200 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,660 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one plausible source. In English records, it was linked either to the Old English coin-name scilling, meaning "shilling," or to an older personal name such as Scilling/Shilwin. German and Dutch forms can also reflect the same coin word or an old byname built from it. Because several traditions overlap, the surname cannot be assigned to one single origin everywhere.
History
Medieval records show spellings such as Scilling, Schilling, and Schelling in English, German, and Dutch contexts. English surname writers often treated it as either a baptismal descendant of an old personal name or a local surname from places like Shillingford, while German scholarship also notes possible coin-name origins. The form remains common in German-speaking areas and among their descendants overseas.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name is historically tied to the old monetary unit "shilling," but some scholars were cautious even in the 1900s about treating that as the only explanation.
From the historical record
“Scilling, occurring e.g. in ' WidsiS,' 1. 207 ; found in the i3th-cent. Hundred-Rolls as Scilling, Schilling, Schelling, the last being the present-day Dutch form [f. the O.E. monetary unit scilling, m.] SHILLINGFORD (Eng.) Bel. to Shillingford (Berks, Devon, Oxf.) [The Berks place”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)