Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English, German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname for a lively person or for a traveling entertainer, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle High German springen, Middle Dutch springhen, Yiddish shpringen ‘to jump or leap’.
  • English : topographic name for someone who lived by a fountain or the source of a stream, Middle English spring ‘spring’ + the habitational suffix -er. The same word was also used of a plantation of young trees, and in some cases this may be the source of the surname.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe