Bolinger
A surname most likely built from a Germanic place-name or personal-name base, later stabilized in English spelling as Bolinger.
The #6,979 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,255 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bolinger is most plausibly a Germanic surname, probably formed from a place-name or from a personal name with the agentive ending -er, later respelled in English-speaking countries. The middle element looks like it may reflect a form related to German Boll-, Bol-, or a similar root, but the exact original source is not certain. In some cases names like this can also be variants of other surnames such as Bollinger, with spelling changing after migration and anglicization.
History
The surname is found in German-speaking areas and later in North America, where spellings often shifted as families moved and records were kept by English-speaking clerks. Because Bolinger overlaps visually and phonetically with Bollinger and related forms, modern bearers may descend from several closely related surname lines rather than one single origin. The name is not rare in the U.S., but its precise family-by-family history can vary.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Spelling differences of just one letter can hide a whole migration story: Bolinger and Bollinger are often close enough that older records may blur them together.