Belding is a city in Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan, completely surrounded by Otisco Township, Michigan. The population was 5,75…Belding is a city in Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan, completely surrounded by Otisco Township, Michigan. The population was 5,757 at the 2010 census. In 1838, six years before John Green came to the area that later would bear his name, Levi Broas, Belding's first settler, arrived in the area. The community first was known as Broas Rapids, later Patterson Mills and even, during logging days, as Hog Wallow. The name Belding was chosen in 1871 to honor the Belding family.