Spaulding
A surname most likely meaning “from Spalding,” a place-name in England.
The #1,899 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,334 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Spaulding is generally treated as a variant of Spalding, a locational surname from Spalding in Lincolnshire. The place-name is usually linked to an Old English tribal or personal name element, though the exact earliest form is not completely secure. In surname use, the ending -ing simply marks someone as belonging to or coming from that place.
History
The spelling with u is a later variant of the older Spalding form and is especially common in English-speaking countries outside Britain. The name was carried to North America early and remains best known there in this variant form. Nineteenth-century surname writers often grouped Spaulding together with Spalding as the same family of place-derived surnames.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Several old surname dictionaries list Spaulding only as a spelling variant under Spalding rather than as a separate name.
From the historical record
“V. Paul] SPAULDING, V. Spalding. SPAWFORTH, V. SpofTorth. SPEAIGHT, V. Speight. SPEAK "1„ o„„^„ SPEAKEJ'-^P^'^^- SPEAKMAN (Eng.) Spokesman, Speaker, Orator [f. O.E. sp{r)ecan, to speak”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)