SPEARING
Spearing is a surname of purely English origin. Its earliest attestations are found in the records of the British Isles and it is unequivocally associated with the island of England.
The name derives from the Middle English word spere, which originally meant “spare” or “spurn” and is further connected to the Old English root spier meaning a pointed metal bar or spear. Consequently, the surname was first assigned to individuals engaged in the manufacture or utilisation of spears – a role that encompassed skilled spearmen, blacksmiths who forged spears, or others whose livelihood involved the weapon. In late medieval usage the term spere was also applied to spurs; thus a secondary occupational explanation relates to those who made or repaired spurs for riders.
In the Anglo‑Saxon period the surname evolved as a patronymic form of the personal byname Spere, recorded as early as the 7th century. The Old English suffix -ing denoted “sons, descendants” or “dependants of”, producing variants such as Spiring, Spering, Sperring and the modern Spearing. The earliest documented registered spelling is that of Agnes Spiryng or Spiring, married to Nicholas Bowerman in 1539 in Somerset, during the reign of King Henry V.
Numerous medieval entries confirm the surname’s spread. One record names Walter Speare of Somerset in 1185 and Henry Spere of Lancashire in 1246. The baptism of Richard Spering, an infant, in Whittington, Gloucestershire, on 18 December 1552, and the christening of Mary, daughter of Thomas Spearing, in Evenlode, Gloucestershire, on 8 September 1677, further illustrate its continuity within the English countryside.
A canting coat of arms has been granted to the Spearing family. Described heraldically, it consists of a silver shield bearing three black roundels in fess between two red barry dancettee. The crest—a ship under sail proper upon a globe—appears in contemporary heraldic rolls associated with the family line.
In modern times the surname remains present throughout England, with concentrations in North Yorkshire, Lancashire, London and East Sussex. In the United Kingdom it is also found in Surrey, particularly the village of Bramley. Across the Atlantic, descendants bearing the name settled in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking economic opportunity. In the United States the surname is most common in the Midwest and Southern states such as Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama, and especially within Scott County, Mississippi. In Australia the surname appears predominantly in the Australian Capital Territory, forming a measurable fraction of the local population. Canadian and New Zealand occurrences are comparatively sparser but are documented in census records.
The surname is typified by a range of orthographic variants: Sparing, Sparling, Speerin, Spiering are among the most frequent spellings. Surnames that are etymologically related include Spear, Spearman, Speargan, Spearpoint, Spiers, Spiersman and their Welsh‑derived forms such as Spearin or Speeron. In some locales the suffix -son has been appended, giving rise to forms like Spearson and Spiersson.
Typical given names associated with the Spearing surname
Male
- Christopher
- Colin
- David
- James
- John
- Jonathan
- Mark
- Matthew
- Michael
- Peter
- William
Female
- Carol
- Charlotte
- Dee
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Jean
- Karen
- Natalie
- Patricia
- Samantha
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
- Sperring
- Spering
- Spearin
- Sparling
- Sparing
- Sparring
- Sparin
- Spanring
- Sparting
- Spearink
- Speering
- Sperin
- Sperinch
- Sperinck
- Sperink
- Sperling
- Sperrin
- Sperrings
- Sperrink
- Sperrins
- Sperryn
- Spierin
- Spiering
- Spierings
- Spierling
- Spiring
- Spirring
- Sporing
- Sprang
- Sprank
- Spreng
- Spring
- Springe
- Springl
- Springs
- Sprink
- Sprong
- Spronk
- Sprung
- Spurin
- Spuring
- Spurring
- Supernak
- Zaparaniuk
- Zepernick
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Spearing in...
Braille
⠎⠏⠑⠁⠗⠊⠝⠛
Morse
....--...-.-...-.--.
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,026 people named Spearing in the UK. That makes it roughly the 7,222nd most common surname in Britain. Around 16 in a million people in Britain are named Spearing.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Spearing
- Jay Spearing - Football player
- Nigel Spearing - Politician (1930 to 2017)
- Tony Spearing - Football player
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.