Recorded as Tipp, Tippe, diminutives Tippell, Tippett, Tipping, patronymics Tippetts, Tipples, Tippins, and possibly others, this is a medieval English surname. There are two possible origins. The first is a nickname and one of the many which in some extraordinary way and over several centuries originated from the ancient names Theobald and Theodore. It is difficult to explain, particulary from a distance of over a thousand years and three changes in language, as to how Theobald became Tebb, and then Tibb, and finally Tipp, but it happened! Another explanation at least for some of the nameholders is that like the surname Tipper, this surname may have described a maker of steel tips for arrows. Occupational surnames were amongst the earliest to be created, but they doid not usually become hereditary until a son fllowed his father into the same line of work. What is certain is that the surname is one of the earliest recorded with that of William Tipere of Huntingdon in 1176, Wimer Tippet in the register of Ramsbury Abbey, Huntingdonshire, in 1249, and Robert Tipping in the Poll Tax rolls of Yorkshire in 1379.

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