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STERLING Family History

This distinguished surname, with several entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography", and having no less than twenty Coats of Arms, is of early medieval Scottish origin, and is a locational name from the historic city of Stirling, in the vicinity of which several famous battles; including Bannockburn (1314), were fought. Recorded in the 12th Century as "Stevelin", the placename is of obscure etymology, and probably derives from a British (pre Roman) river name; however, the final element may conceivably be the Old Scandinavian "lin", flax, hence "pastures where flax was grown".