Cap Family History
Cap Name Meaning
Polish Slovak Rusyn (from Slovakia and Poland) and Jewish (from Ukraine); Hungarian (Cáp): from Polish and Slovak cap Rusyn and Ukrainian tsap ‘he-goat’ and so probably a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way or perhaps a metonymic occupational name for a goatherd. Compare Czap . Czech (Čáp): nickname for a tall or long-legged man from čáp ‘stork’. Compare Chap and Czap . Americanized form of Ukrainian and Rusyn Tsap a cognate of 1 above. Breton (also Le Cap) and French: from Breton kab and Occitan cap (from Latin caput) ‘head’ or in the metaphorical sense ‘chief’ also ‘promontory’. This may have been a topographic name for someone living on a promontory or headland or a nickname for a stubborn person or for a person with something distinctive about his head or perhaps a status name for a village elder. This surname is found mainly in Finistère in Brittany. Compare Capp . English (North Yorkshire): variant of Capp . Americanized form of Dutch or German Kap a cognate/variant of German Kapp .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022