Thigpen Family History
Thigpen Name Meaning
Probably an altered form of English Thickpenny which belonged to a late 15th-century merchant family based in Plymouth (Devon) and in York. In the 16th and 17th centuries it is recorded as a gentry surname in Rutland Huntingdonshire Bedfordshire East Anglia and Ireland. The surname appears to be a nickname ‘thick penny’ but the motivation is obscure and it may be an altered form by folk etymology of some other name. In North America and Ireland there is a close family relationship between persons named Thigpen and those named Phippen but if the two names are linguistically related it is more likely that Phippen would be a simplified pronunciation of Thickpenny alias Thigpen than the other way round.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
