Pipe Family History

English (Suffolk and Somerset): metonymic occupational name for a piper from Middle English pipe ‘pipe’ (Old English pīpe). In some cases it may have been a topographic name from the same word in the sense ‘waterpipe conduit water channel’ or a habitational name from Pipe in Herefordshire or Pipehill in Staffordshire, near Lichfield (earlier Pipa) both named from this word.

This name may also be a nickname from Middle English pip, a shortened form of pipin ‘pip or seed of a fleshy fruit such as apple or grape’, also ‘apple tree’. It might have been given to someone of small stature.

Occasionally, the name is derived from the Middle English personal name Pip(pe), perhaps akin to Phip(pe), a pet form of Philip, used mainly as a male personal name.