Knapp Family History

German: occupational or status name from the German word Knapp(e), a variant of Knabe ‘young unmarried man’. In the 15th century, this spelling acquired the separate specialized meanings ‘servant apprentice’ and ‘miner’. This surname is also found elsewhere in central Europe, e.g., in Czechia and Slovakia, where it is more commonly spelled Knap (compare 3 below).

German: in Franconia, a nickname for a dexterous or skillful person of the same ultimate origin as 1 above. Germanized or Americanized form of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Rusyn, and Slovenian Knap, a surname of ultimately German origin (see 1 above).

English: nickname from Middle English knape, knappe ‘boy, youth; servant’, also ‘rogue, rascal’ (Old English cnapa). Compare Nave with which it sometimes interchanges.

English: from Middle English knap(pe) ‘knob, hillock’ (Old English cnæpp ‘hilltop’). The name may be topographic for someone who lived ‘(at the) hill top or hillock’ or toponymic from a place so named such as Knapp in Christchurch (Hampshire), Knapp in Woolfardisworthy (Devon), or Knapp Farm in Iping (Sussex).

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from the German adjective knapp ‘tight, scarce’, one of the surnames distributed at random to Jews by Austrian clerks.