STYPULKOWSKI appears to derive ultimately from the root _stypul~a_, "drumstick," and there are several villages with compound names, "Stypul~ki" (literally "little drumsticks") + a second name, e. g. Stypul~ki Borki, Stypul~ki Giemzin, etc., in Kobylin Borzymy and Sokoly parishes of Lomza province among others.
It's hard to say exactly why these villages got that name, perhaps there was a geographic feature that looked like a drumstick, or perhaps there was a family in the area that made drum sticks, or perhaps the places belonged at some point to a person with the nickname "little drumstick" -- the names probably originated centuries ago. So, Stypul~kowski would mean roughly "person from the place associated with little drumsticks," or just "family from Stypul~ki."
As of 1990 there were 1,636 Polish citizens named Stypul~kowski, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (176), Bialystok (344), and Lomza (551). The concentration in northeastern Poland is enough to indicate the Stypul~kowskis probably come from the area of those villages mentioned above, and then spread out.
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William F. "Fred" Hoffman
Author, Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings
Publications Editor, Polish Genealogical Society of America
www.pgsa.org