Skimming stones vs skipping stones?

I heard someone talked about "skimming stones" but read in a book about "stone skipping".

Is one from the US and the other from the UK ? Is there any difference or do they have the exact same meaning ?

Solution 1:

They mean the same, but there's a significant US/UK split. Here's the US usage...

...and here's the UK usage...

But whereas I personally would invariably refer to the activity itself as skimming stones, I see nothing unusual in this BBC piece from a few years ago...

How do you skim a stone 51 times?
Russell "Rock Bottom" Byars has skimmed his way into the record books, throwing a stone that skipped an amazing 51 times.

I would always say the pastime (what the person does) is skimming, but to me it's perfectly reasonable to refer to what the stone does as skipping (and to call each bounce a skip, not a skim).

Solution 2:

They are the same.

skimming stones: to throw in a smooth, gliding path over or near a surface, or so as to bounce or ricochet along a surface:

...skimmed a stone across the lake.

skipping stones:to ricochet or bounce along a surface:

The stone skipped over the lake.

North America: "skipping rocks" or "skipping stones" (Wiki)