Stubbs
A surname most likely from a place beside a tree stump or stump-marked clearing.
The #1,781 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,335 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest early explanation treats Stubbs as a local name from a dialect word for a tree stump or the remains of a cleared tree. In that reading, a person lived near a conspicuous stump, stump-land, or a clearing known by that feature. Some older writers also linked it to Stephen/Stibb- type forms, but the place-name explanation is the one most clearly stated in the historical sources here.
History
Bardsley and Lower both treat Stubbs as a local surname, and Lower explicitly explains it from a provincial word for a tree stump left in forest clearings. The name is well established in England and later appears in America, where it is borne by several notable families. Because monosyllabic local surnames often take a final -s, the form fits a familiar English naming pattern.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same stump-related root appears in several related surnames, including Stobbs and Stibbs.
From the historical record
“1856. STUBBS. 1. See Stephen. 2. Astuhov stob is a provincial word for the stump of a tree left in forest clearings. Such a clearing would for a time acquire the ai^pellation of " the Stubbs," and residence near it would originate the surname. STUNT. A-Sax. Blunt, stupid, foolish. In Lincolnshire and other…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom