Mellinger
A surname most likely meaning “someone from Mellingen,” a place-name surname tied to a Swiss locality.
The #8,617 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,866 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Mellinger is best understood as a habitational surname, formed from the place-name Mellingen, a town in Aargau, Switzerland. In German surname practice, the suffix -er commonly means “person from” or “one associated with” a place. The name therefore most likely originally identified someone who came from, or had connections with, Mellingen.
History
The excerpted source places Mellinger among other surnames taken from Swiss place-names, which supports a Swiss-German origin. Such locational surnames often spread as people migrated and were identified by their place of origin rather than by a family trade or characteristic. In North America, the name appears in German-speaking and Pennsylvania German communities, where many imported surnames retained their original German form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The ending -er is a common German clue that a surname may point to a place of origin rather than a job or nickname.
From the historical record
“Locker (Loch = brushwood ; it is also name of several villages in Switzerland), Longenecker (Longenegg, in Bern, Appenzell, St. Gall), Luckenbuhl, Luckenbach, Mellinger (in Aargau), Moser, Mosser (Moos = moss), Mi'mchauer (Miinch = monk ; Au = 3i 6 Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names.”
— Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names