It was discovered on 7 May 1991, by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.
[8] This minor planet was named after Reg Sprigg (1919–1994), Australian exploration geologist, oceanographer, biologist, author and conservationist.
[7] A rotational lightcurve of Sprigg was obtained from photometric observations by astronomer Maurice Clark at Texas Tech University in October 2013.
Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 3.219 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.68 magnitude, indicating that the body has a non-spheroidal shape (U=3-).
[6] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Sprigg measures 6.606 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.280,[4][5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a larger diameter of 12.75 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.2.