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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : according to Reaney this is a nickname from an unattested Old English word cybbe meaning ‘clumsy’ or ‘thickset’. Reaney’s speculation is apparently based on taking the Middle English word kibble ‘cudgel’ as a diminutive of an unattested Old English word. Corresponding personal names have been postulated for the place names Kibworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybba’) and Kibblesworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybbel’); so, in theory, the surname could be a reflex of these Old English personal names.
  • North German : nickname for a cantankerous person, from Middle Low German, Middle High German kiven ‘to quarrel’.

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