Eng
An English surname with a very uncertain origin, sometimes explained as an old nickname for a nimble or versatile person.
The #3,352 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,903 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-known 19th-century explanation treats Eng as an Old English nickname, though the details are shaky. Lower says it was derived from Old English elements meaning roughly "all" and "fasten/join," and glossed as "a man who can do anything" or a "Jack of all trades." That explanation is speculative and not securely established, so the name is best treated as an uncertain descriptive surname rather than a firmly proven one.
History
The surname appears in English-language surname collections as a rare name rather than a major family name. In the nineteenth century it was already being cited as of Anglo-Saxon origin, but even then the derivation was disputed or at least conjectural. Because the name is short and uncommon, later references often preserve the old guesswork rather than adding certainty.
Origin
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Fun fact
A Victorian source tried to explain it as meaning something like "a man who can do anything," but modern surname scholars would treat that as a guess, not a settled fact.
From the historical record
“ENG ■ name is evidently of A-Sax, origin, and it has been derived from two words in tliat language — al, all, and fcgan, to fix or join, and interpreted to signify "a man who can do anything ; a Jack of all Trades." En- cycl. Perthensis. ELPHINSTONE. The ancestor of Lord Elphinstone was, according to a family”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom