Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from places in Northumberland and Kent. The former is probbly from an Old English stelling ‘shelter or fold for cattle’; the latter may be named with an unattested Old English male personal name, Stealla, + -ingas, a suffix denoting ‘family or followers of’.
  • Dutch : topographic name from a derivative of Middle Dutch stelle ‘land built up on mudflats behind a dike’.
  • German : derivative of Stell 1, for a small cattle farmer.

Join the Family

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

Subscribe