English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: status name for a
champion, Middle English and Middle Low German kempe. In the
Middle Ages a champion was a professional fighter on behalf of others;
for example the King’s Champion, at the coronation, had the duty of
issuing a general challenge to battle to anyone who denied the king’s
right to the throne. The Middle English word corresponds to Old
English cempa and Old Norse kempa ‘warrior’; both these
go back to Germanic campo ‘warrior’, which is the source of the
Dutch and North German name, corresponding to High German
Kampf.Dutch: metonymic occupational name for
someone who grew or processed hemp, from Middle Dutch canep
‘hemp’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
1,477,614
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Kemp
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
You can find out where the majority of the Kemp families were living before
they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
port of arrival, and destination.
Did the Kemps fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.
Starting a family tree at Ancestry is not only the easiest way to organise, preserve
and share your family history, it's also a direct link to missing information about
your roots.