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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : topographic name for someone who lived by a hillock (see Knapp), or habitational name for someone from a place named with this word.
  • English : possibly a variant spelling of Napper, a variant of Napier.
  • German (also Knäpper) : habitational name from either of two places in Westphalia named Knapp.
  • German (Knäpper) : unflattering nickname from an agent derivative of knappen ‘to be stingy’ or, in some places, ‘to grab or snatch’.

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