Wiblin Family History

From the Middle English personal name Wibelin, probably from Norman Old French Wibelin, a double diminutive form of Continental Germanic Wibbo, a pet form of Wigbald or Wigbert. Compare the surname Wyberd 1327 and 1332 in Subsidy Rolls (Sussex) and the French surname Guibelin, which derives from a Central or Parisian French variant of Wibelin.

Alternatively, it might be a double diminutive form of Middle English Wibbe, Old English Wibba, perhaps a pet form of Old English Wīgbeald, Wīgbeorht, or the rarer Wīgbeorn. Compare Willelmus filius Wibbe 1231 in Patent Rolls (Northumb) and Ricardus Wibbe 1379 in Poll Tax (Ecclesfield, WR Yorks).

Personal names of Old English origin rarely attract Old French hypocoristic suffixes but compare Pimlott. The Continental Germanic and the Old English names are composed of the elements Wīg- ‘war’ + b(e)ald ‘brave’, be(o)rht ‘bright, fair’, or beorn ‘hero’.