Trumble
A surname most likely descended from Turnbull, though some writers also linked it to an old personal name meaning “strong, bold.”
The #9,800 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,474 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-known explanation treats Trumble as a reduced or altered form of Turnbull, a nickname surname ultimately built from the verb turn plus bull. Historical surname writers also proposed an older Anglo-Saxon personal name, Trumbald, from Old English trum meaning “strong, firm” and bald meaning “bold.” In practice, the Turnbull connection is usually taken as the stronger explanation, with Trumble arising through local pronunciation and spelling change.
History
Bardsley and later writers explicitly argue that Trumble is a corruption of Turnbull, not the other way around, and cite early spellings such as Turnebull/Turnbull in medieval records. Weekley also groups Trumble with other surnames formed from Turnbull-type nickname compounds. The surname is now relatively uncommon, but it survives in Britain and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname scholars strongly disagreed on whether the name came from a personal-name root or from the famous nickname surname Turnbull, but the Turnbull theory won out in most later treatments.
From the historical record
“TRulDAfE^}^^'-°fT''°"«dale,q.v. TRUMBLE (Eng.) I a descendant oftheA.-Sax. Trumbald = Strongly Bold [O.E. trum, strong, firm -|- b(e)ald, bold] 2 a metathetic form of Turnbull, q.v. Trum(in”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)