Spring
A surname that can point to a spring or fountain, or sometimes to a grove or young wood.
The #4,053 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,257 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained from Old English and Middle English spring, meaning a spring of water or fountain. In some cases it may also have been used for someone who lived by a grove or young wood, a dialectal sense recorded in older surname works. The name can therefore be topographic rather than occupational, describing where the first bearer lived.
History
19th- and early-20th-century surname writers treated Spring as an English topographic surname, and it remains established in Britain and North America. The form is straightforward and likely arose independently in more than one place from the common landscape word. Modern bearers may descend from several separate local origins rather than one single family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries sometimes grouped Spring with other names drawn from natural features like Winter and Summer.
From the historical record
“SPRIGGS, Sprigg's (Son) : v. Sprigg. SPRING (Eng.) i Dweller at a Fountain [O.E. spryng; f. springan, to burst forth] 2 Dweller at a Grove or Young Wood [Dial. E.] The nightingale, among the thick-leav'd spring. — Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, v. i.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)