#etymology

• Etymology of the Spurlin surname · The Surname strong
  Scholarly surname dictionaries derive Spurlin, through Spurling and Sparling, from either an Old English personal name (Spyrling) or a Middle English word for a small fish such as the smelt; the popular 'sparrow' explanation belongs to German Sperling.
• Sparling (the fish) and the Spurlin name · The Surname strong
  'Sparling' (also sperling, spurling) is an old English and Scots word for the European smelt, Osmerus eperlanus. It is one of the two main proposed sources of the Spurling/Spurlin surname.
• Spurlin (surname) · The Surname strong
  Spurlin is an English-origin surname, treated by modern surname dictionaries as a variant of Spurling/Sparling; today it is found almost entirely in the United States, where about 2,600 people bore it in the 2020 Census.