employed or involved in giving professional advice to the public or to those practicing the profession: a consulting physician. 2. of, relating to, or used for consultation: a physician's consulting room. Origin of consulting. 1790-1800.
This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Hemming.' 'Hemming, a Danish personal name' (Lower). The Hundred Rolls prove the name to have become well established in the 13th century; compare the local Hemingborough in the the Diocese of York, Hemingby (Lincoln), Hemingford Grey (Ely), Heminghall (Norwich), Hemingston (ibid.
Old English hem a border, especially of cloth or a garment, from Proto-Germanic *hamjam (cf. Apparently the same root yielded Old English hamm, common in place names (where it means enclosure, land hemmed in by water or high ground, land in a river bend).