Family name origins & meanings
- English : in part probably a metonymic occupational name for a soldier in charge of a catapult- or bow-like machine used for throwing heavy missiles, Old French espringalle, Anglo-French springalde. However, Reaney and Wilson, believe the Middle English word springal(d) (which appears to have contributed to the surname), to have a different derivation, perhaps a nickname for a young man, a stripling, from spring (see Spring).