SPONG
Spong is a surname of English and Old Norse provenance. The name is derived from an Early English personal name or topographical element, and in the Norse context from the Old Norse personal name Spongi, meaning “sponge” or “absorbent.” It is therefore likely to have originated as a nickname denoting a person of a soft or absorptive nature, or possibly as a reference to a person involved with the handling of sponges.
The English variant is rooted in Anglo‑Saxon elements. In pre‑seventeenth‑century usage the word spong denoted a narrow strip of land, a tongue of land or a clip of ground. Consequently the surname could have been a topographical name for someone living near such a feature, or an occupational name for a worker who laboured upon a narrow stretch of land. An alternative possibility is a metonymic occupational name for a roofer who covered roofs with wooden shingles, from Olde‑English spon.
Early documentary evidence of the surname dates back to the late fourteenth century: Richard del Spon appears in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1376, during the reign of King Edward III, who ruled from 1327 to 1377. The first recorded spelling recognised as a family name is shown as Spon in 1606 in Suffolk, while the earliest known use of the spelling Spong is in the year 1299 with a Robert Spong of Somerset. An entry also survives for Thomas Spong, christened on 10 February 1638 at St. Brides, Fleet Street, London, and for the marriage of George Spong to Elizabeth Robinson on 10 October 1694 at St. James, Duke's Place.
Over subsequent centuries the surname has been recorded with a number of variants and related forms. Common spellings in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales include Spon, Spunge, Spang and Spang. In Scotland the form Spaung is occasionally encountered, and in Wales the variant Spang is most frequent. Other cognate surnames sharing the same root are Spone, Spaun, Sponn, Sponee, Sponie, Sponieh, Sponny, Sponnye, Sponkay, Sponky, Sponkle and Spooner. All of these derive from the original spong element.
In contemporary times the surname remains uncommon. The United Kingdom records 81 individuals bearing the name in England in 2019. In the United States the U.S. Census Bureau lists 12 people with the surname, reflecting a proportion of 0.002 % of the population. In the Netherlands there are at least 25 bearers, in Sweden about 21, and in Germany eight. Australia records have six individuals with the surname, and the name is also found in smaller numbers in Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, South Africa and various other English‑speaking countries.
Typical given names associated with the Spong surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- Anthony
- Christopher
- David
- Graham
- Mark
- Michael
- Nicholas
- Peter
- Richard
- William
Female
- Alexandra
- Jane
- Jean
- Jennifer
- Katherine
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Patricia
- Pauline
- Sally
- Samantha
- Sarah
- Susan
- Wendy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Spong in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 876 people named Spong in the UK. That makes it roughly the 8,179th most common surname in Britain. Around 13 in a million people in Britain are named Spong.
Famous people named Spong
- Roger Spong - Rugby union player (1906 to 1980)
- Hilda Spong - Actress of stage and screen (1875 to 1955)
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.