Spellman
An English and Irish surname that can mean either “son of Spileman” or “speaker/narrator,” depending on the family line.
The #4,650 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,481 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In English records, Spellman is often treated as a variant of Spil(l)man or Spelman, a surname built from the Middle English personal name or byname Spilman/Spelman. Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a word for a speaker or narrator, but that explanation is less certain. In Irish usage, the name is also found as an anglicized form of Gaelic surnames such as O’Spealáin or related forms, which produced several spellings in English.
History
The surname appears in English records in medieval and early modern spellings such as Spelman, Spillman, and Spellman. It is also well established in Ireland, where it can represent more than one Gaelic surname and has generated a cluster of anglicized variants. In the United States, Spellman is familiar as a surname of both English and Irish heritage, helped by migration from both traditions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A number of older reference works grouped Spellman with other surnames built on words for speaking or storytelling, showing how freely 19th-century surname scholars sometimes interpreted names.
From the historical record
“SpiUman.— Bapt. 'the son of Spileman'; v. Spellman. London, 3. Spilabury.— Local, 'of Spels- bury,' a parish in co. Oxford, near”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances