First found in Swabia, where it is thought to have first emerged. The earliest recorded bearer of the name was Johannes dictus (called) Lape, who was a monk living in the town of St. Trudbert in the Black Forest region of Swabia in 1267. The young L'Abbe family played a major role in the early history of the region, and contributed greatly to the development of medieval Swabian society.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Agnes Lapp, who emigrated from the Palatinate to New York in 1710; Georg Lapp, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1751; Daniel Lapp, a Hessian mercenary who settled in America after fighting in the Revolutionary War, Francis Lapp, who was naturalized in Baltimore in 1840.

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