Welling
A mostly English surname that usually points to someone from the village of Welling in Kent, though some writers also treated it as a patronymic from an old personal name.
The #7,947 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,146 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The common explanation is that Welling is a habitational surname from Welling in Kent. Older writers linked the place-name to Old English elements associated with a family or people settlement, with the ending -ing / -ingum meaning roughly “the people of” or “descendants of.” Another interpretation, recorded by some 19th-century scholars, is that the surname may sometimes reflect a personal name rather than the place itself. Since the evidence is mixed, the safest view is that it is usually locational, with a possible patronymic strand in some cases.
History
Bardsley and Harrison both point to the Kent place-name as the main source of the surname. Harrison further notes an old medieval form of the place-name and treats it as a settlement-name built with the -ing suffix. The surname is relatively uncommon in the United States, but it has long been established in England and appears in early records in various spellings such as Welling and Wellen.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The place-name Welling was once written in forms that make its connection to the old -ing family/people ending especially visible.
From the historical record
“2 for Welcome, qv. WELLING (Eng.) Bel. to Welling, A.-Sax. Wellingum, Welingum (both dat. pi. forms occur in the same loth-cent. Hertford- shire Latin Will : 'Cart. Sax.' no. 812) = At (the Place of) the Wel- Family [the pers. name is either f. O.E. wel, more commonly wcel, slaughter, death, &c., or O.E. wela…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)