Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : occupational name for a producer or seller of table linen or for a naperer, the servant in charge of the linen in use in a great house, Middle English, Old French nap(p)ier, an agent derivative of Old French nappe ‘table cloth’ (Latin mappa). Compare Napper.
- Shortened form of Polish Napierala or a similar name.
- An extensive Scottish family called Napier, who once held the earldom of Lennox, are descended from the hereditary naperers to the Kings of Scotland in the 12th century.