Stumpf
A German surname meaning “stump” or “tree stump,” often first used for someone living by or working with stumps or stumps of land cleared of trees.
The #5,629 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 50,015 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Stumpf comes from German stumpf/stump, ultimately linked to Old High German stoc and related forms referring to a stump or truncated piece of wood. In surname use, it most likely began as a nickname or topographic name for someone associated with a tree stump, a cleared place, or rough, shortened ground. Some 19th-century German surname studies also note that in a few place-names the same root may have been influenced by a sense of “hill” or “mountain,” but the basic meaning is still “stump.”
History
The name is well established in German-speaking areas and appears in older surname collections alongside forms such as Stump and Stumph. It later spread beyond Germany through migration, especially into North America, where the spelling Stumpf was retained by many families. In English records, the related shorter form Stump is also found, which can make historical identification tricky.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same stump-root that produced this surname also appears in many German place-names and compounds, because a stump was a common landmark in cleared woodland.
From the historical record
“Stt^bener, St5ber s. Badstüber. Stock 1) ON. ahd. stoch, mhd. stoc „Baum- stumpf" — geht zwar meist auf die stehen- gebliebenen Wurzelstöcke gefällter Bäume ; doch ist in manchen Fällen auch die Bed. ,,Berg" in Betracht zu ziehen, vgl. Gebirgs- stock. In ON. -stock, -stock. FN. V. Birkenstock. Haberstock. Hilgen-”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen