Most surnames have come from two main sources – either the name of a tribe or clan or from a place name where people lived around 1000 years ago. Of course many place names came from the name of the original settler, so is also a sort of tribal name.

Looking in textbooks of surnames (such as “Surnames of the United Kingdom” by Henry Harrison, published by Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore in 1969) you will often see this sort of entry –

SHELDON – belonging to Sheldon (Warwks, Devon, Derby etc). Earliest record 13th cent. Of the original name of Sceldon.  The earliest form of the name was Scelfdun as seen in the charter of Offa, King of the Mercians, to the Church of St Albans.  The first element scelf or scylfe denotes a shelf or ledge (also a crag), and the second being Old English Dun for a hill.

However there is a different slant on the origins of Sheldon in the book “English Surnames and their place in the Teutonic Family”  by Robert Ferguson, published by George Routledge, London and New York in 1858. Here we read –

The Scylfingas or Scilfings are a Scandinavian tribe – probably from Sweden – as mentioned in Beowulf.  Their name must be derived from a hero Scelf or Scylf. In the Fornald Sog the father of the Norse Skiold is called Skelfir.  Scelf and Scylf is from the Old Norse Skelfa, to strike with fear, and Skelfir is one inspiring fear.  Shelley in Suffolk (Anglo-Saxon Scelfleah) and Shelton in Bedfordshire (Anglo-Saxon Scelfdun) are probably from the same name Scelf. This also applies to Sheldon and possibly Skelding, Shelf and Shelver which come from the same source.