Schooling Family History

English (Essex and Middlesex): from Middle English scholand, a word of disputed meaning. It was the name of a piece of ground in several places in southeastern England including Shoe Lane in London, Shoeland Farm in Hendon (Middlesex), two lost field names in Essex, three in Surrey (Shoelands in Puttenham and Witley, and Scoland (1177–86) in Wandsworth), and Shulland in Kent.

However, only the London and Essex places seem to have given rise to a surname which preserves an alternative /sk/ pronunciation. This demonstrates the common confusion of -land and -ling in pronouncing the unstressed final syllable.