Stebbins
An English surname probably from Stebbing in Essex, meaning “the people from the place by the stump or tree-stub.”
The #5,371 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,617 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is generally treated as a locational surname, from Stebbing in Essex. The place-name was earlier written in forms like Stubing and was explained by older writers as containing a root meaning “stump” or “tree-stub,” plus an element interpreted as a meadow or field. The surname Stebbins is usually understood as a later form built from Stebbing, with the -s ending functioning as a family or patronymic-style addition in English usage.
History
The name is found in English records and later carried to North America, where it became established as a family surname. Older surname writers also recorded the spelling variant Stubbins or Stubbins alongside Stebbins. Because 19th-century etymologists sometimes offered different explanations for the place-name roots, the exact linguistic breakdown of the original place name should be treated cautiously.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
An early etymology connected the name with a place originally thought to mean something like “stump meadow,” showing how much medieval place-names could preserve old landscape words.
From the historical record
“Danish, a star. STEBBINS or STUBBINS. Local From a town of the same name called Stebbings, originally Stubing, in Essex, England. So called from stub, Saxon, styobe, Latin stipes, the stump of a tree, and ing, a field or meadow. STEELE. A name given, in all probability, to a person who * 'as inflexible, hard, firm…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names