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Spurling place names (related spelling)

Several U.S. places carry the closely related name Spurling rather than Spurlin: a populated place in Montana, a stream in Tennessee, and a cove, point and rock around Great Cranberry Island, Maine. Spurlington, Kentucky, is also named for a Spurling family, and Tasmania has a Mount Spurling named for a photographer's 1908 discovery.

Sourcing: strong 8 government · 5 reference · 1 genealogy · 1 social

Spurling is closely related to Spurlin. In U.S. records the two often alternate within a single family. Searches of the federal gazetteer for "Spurlin" also return a set of Spurling features, listed here so they are not confused with Spurlin sites.[1][2][3]

Features in GNIS

  • Spurling, Montana: a populated place in Yellowstone County, GNIS 777097, at about 45.651° N, 108.845° W on the USGS Laurel quadrangle.[1][4]
  • Spurling Branch, Tennessee: a stream in Monroe County in the East Tennessee foothills, GNIS 1327089.[3]
  • Spurling Point, Maine: a cape in Hancock County, GNIS 581493, on the USGS Southwest Harbor quadrangle.[2][5]
  • Spurling Cove and Spurling Rock, Maine: a bay and a bar, also in Hancock County, GNIS 578899 and 578898.[6] GNIS records a U.S. Board on Geographic Names decision on the name Spurling Cove dated 1910.[7]

Great Cranberry Island, Maine

The three Maine features lie around Great Cranberry Island, off Mount Desert Island. A Cruising Club of America harbor guide places Great Cranberry's town dock on the north side of the island "in an area known as Spurling Cove". It also describes the Spurling Point lighted gong buoy in the Western Way, with Great Cranberry immediately to the east, and the Spurling Rock lighted bell buoy in the Gilley Thorofare just north of the island.[8]

The Great Cranberry Island Historical Society says the Spurling Revolutionary War Cemetery stands on a bluff at the northeast end of the island, overlooking Spurling Cove and the town dock. It was begun in 1785, when Benjamin Spurling Sr. and his wife Fanny (Guptill) Spurling buried an infant daughter, and its last known burial was in 1848.[9] For Benjamin Spurling and his descendants, see Benjamin Spurling of the Cranberry Isles. None of the sources consulted states outright that the cove, point and rock were named for his family.

Spurlington, Kentucky

Spurlington in Taylor County, Kentucky, has a longer ending, but it too is a Spurling name. The Kentucky place-name scholar Robert M. Rennick wrote that its post office, established in 1880, was "named for the pioneer forebears of its first postmaster, John Spurling Sr."[10] A student essay reposted on a genealogy forum says the neighborhood had earlier been known as "Spurling town" because so many Spurlings lived there.[11] See Spurlington, Kentucky.

Outside the United States

At least one Spurling place name exists outside the United States. On a 1908 expedition across Tasmania's Central Plateau, the Launceston photographer Stephen Spurling III discovered and named Lake Spurling. In 1955 the Tasmanian Nomenclature Board renamed the lake Lake Riengeena and gave the name Mount Spurling to a nearby mountain.[12] See Spurling photographers of Tasmania. In England, 18th-century leases of a farm at Hemel Hempstead name a field called "Spurlins" (see The Spurlin name outside the United States).[13]

Distribution of the surname

Forebears data shows that Spurling is spread across the English-speaking world, while Spurlin is almost entirely American. Spurling bearers are counted in England, Australia and Canada.[14][15] See Spurling (surname).

See also

  • Places named Spurlin · Places strong
    Overview of communities, landforms, streams, crossings, cemeteries and civic sites in the United States that carry the Spurlin (or closely related Spurling) name, with pointers to Spurlin historical markers and federal land records.
  • Spurlington, Kentucky · Places mixed
    Spurlington is a small rural community in Taylor County, Kentucky, northeast of Campbellsville. It was a railroad station with a post office from 1880 to 1958, and it is named for the Spurling family, whose John Spurling Sr. was its first postmaster.
  • Benjamin Spurling of the Cranberry Isles · History mixed
    Benjamin Spurling (1752–1836) was a New Hampshire-born sea captain and Revolutionary War militia corporal. He is described as the first permanent settler of Great Cranberry Island, Maine, founded a long line of Spurlings there, and is buried in the family's Revolutionary War cemetery above Spurling Cove.
  • Spurling (surname) · The Surname strong
    Spurling is the fuller spelling from which Spurlin derives. Unlike Spurlin, it is well established in England, Australia and especially Bermuda as well as the United States.
  • The Spurlin name outside the United States · Culture strong
    Spurlin is an overwhelmingly American surname today, with about 98% of bearers in the United States. The spelling is older than American settlement: English archives record Spurlins in Middlesex and Bristol between 1670 and 1717, and 18th-century leases name a field called 'Spurlins' in Hertfordshire. Outside the U.S. the related form Spurling is far more common.
  • Spurlin cemeteries · Places weak
    A roundup of burial grounds named for the Spurlin family on Find a Grave: eight Spurlin cemeteries in Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina, plus Spurlington- and Spurling-named cemeteries and the graves of notable Spurlins.
  • Spurling photographers of Tasmania (variant spelling) · People strong
    Four members of the Spurling family, across three generations, worked as photographers in Tasmania from the mid-19th century until 1941. Stephen Spurling II (1847–1924) ran a leading Launceston studio. His son Stephen Spurling III (1876–1962) pioneered Tasmanian wilderness photography, and Tasmania's Mount Spurling bears the family name.

References

  1. ↑ ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 3 (Populated Places), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
  2. ↑ ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 5 (Landforms), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
  3. ↑ ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 6 (Streams (Mouth)), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
  4. ↑ Spurling (Feature ID 777097) — USGS Geographic Names Information System — Populated place, Yellowstone County; primary map "Laurel" Government
  5. ↑ Spurling Point (Feature ID 581493) — USGS Geographic Names Information System — Cape, Hancock County; primary map "Southwest Harbor" Government
  6. ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 7 (Other Hydrographic Features), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
  7. ↑ Spurling Cove (Feature ID 578899) — USGS Geographic Names Information System — Bay, Hancock County; Board on Geographic Names decision, 1910 Government
  8. ↑ Cranberry Islands — Cruising Club of America harbor guide Reference
  9. ↑ Cemetery Preservation Projects — Great Cranberry Island Historical Society — Read via Internet Archive snapshot, 2026-09-16 Genealogy
  10. ↑ Robert M. Rennick, "Place Names Beginning with the Letter S" — Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, Morehead State University — Draft Spurlington entry; PDF read via Internet Archive snapshot, 2024-11-15 Reference
  11. ↑ Spurlington Community — Genealogy.com Kentucky forum — Post of 1 December 2002 copying a Taylor County High School student's essay from Kentucky Heritage; user-contributed Social
  12. ↑ Spurling, Stephen (1876–1962) — Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University — Lake Spurling (1908); Lake Riengeena and Mount Spurling (1955) Reference
  13. ↑ Counterpart lease, Handpost Farm, Hemel Hempstead, 16 May 1738 (DE/Nm/80500) — Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, via The National Archives Discovery — Field list includes "Spurlins" Government
  14. ↑ Spurling Surname — Forebears Reference
  15. ↑ Spurlin Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History — Forebears Reference

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Last reviewed 2026-09-24.