Explore the Family Name Trundle

The meaning of Trundle

1. English (Essex and Norfolk): from Middle English trendel, trindel ‘circle, sphere’ (Old English trendel), used topographically to denote a range of circular features, notably prehistoric stone circles, earthwork enclosures, and rounded hills. The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived beside such a feature, or toponymic, from a place so named, such as Trendell’s Wood in Stokenchurch (Buckinghamshire), The Trundle, a hillfort on Saint Roche’s Hill in Singleton (Sussex), and Trull (Somerset). Perhaps also nicknames from Middle English trendel, trindel ‘circle, sphere’ (Old English trendel), used to denote a wheel or spindle, for someone who made or used such items; or from a derivative of Middle English trendlen ‘to roll, bounce, revolve’ (Old English trendlian). 2. Possibly an altered form of South German Tröndle, a variant of Trendle, a nickname for a tearful person, from Träne ‘tear’ + the diminutive suffix (d)-l.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.