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’.