Contents [hide]

Whipple History Early Origins Early History Spelling Variations Early Notables Ranking

Contemporary Notables Related Stories Suggested Reading Citations

Whipple History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The Atlantic Ocean to the north and west and the English Channel to the south borders Cornwall, the homeland to the Whipple family name. Even though the usage of surnames was common during the Middle Ages, all English people were known only by a single name in early times. The manner in which hereditary surnames arose is interesting. Local surnames are derived from where the original bearer lived, was born, or held land. The Whipple family originally lived in Devon at the parish of Whimple.

Early Origins of the Whipple family

The surname Whipple was first found in East Devon at Whimple, a village and civil parish which dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was listed as Winple 1 and gets its name from a stream that originally ran through the area as in the Celtic name meaning "white pool or stream." 2 The Whimple Wassail is an orchard-visiting wassail ceremony which takes place annually every Old Twelfth Night (January 17th.)

Early History of the Whipple family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Whipple research. Another 60 words (4 lines of text) covering the years 1617, 1642, 1662, 1685, 1687, 1743, 1745, 1746 and 1750 are included under the topic Early Whipple History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Whipple Spelling Variations

Cornish surnames are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. The frequent changes in surnames are due to the fact that the Old and Middle English languages lacked definite spelling rules. The official court languages, which were Latin and French, were also influential on the spelling of a surname. Since the spelling of surnames was rarely consistent in medieval times, and scribes and church officials recorded names as they sounded rather than adhering to any specific spelling rules, it was common to find the same individual referred to with different spellings of their surname in the ancient chronicles. Moreover, a large number of foreign names were brought into England, which accelerated and accentuated the alterations to the spelling of various surnames. Lastly, spelling variations often resulted from the linguistic differences between the people of Cornwall and the rest of England. The Cornish spoke a unique Brythonic Celtic language which was first recorded in written documents during the 10th century. However, they became increasingly Anglicized, and Cornish became extinct as a spoken language in 1777, although it has been revived by Cornish patriots in the modern era. The name has been spelled Whimple, Whirple, Whipple, Wipley, Whippy and many more.

Early Notables of the Whipple family

Notable amongst the family at this time was

John Whipple (c. 1617-1685), an early settler of Dorchester in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Whipple Ranking

In the United States, the name Whipple is the 2,363^rd most popular surname with an estimated 12,435 people with that name. 3

Whipple migration to the United States +

The records on immigrants and ships' passengers show a number of people bearing the name Whipple:

Whipple Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

John Whipple (c. 1617-1685) who settled in Boston, Massachusetts in 1630
Mr. John Whipple, who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1632 aboard the ship "Lyon" 4
Matthew Whipple, who arrived in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1638 5
John Whipple, who landed in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1668 5

Whipple Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Edwin Whipple, who arrived in San Francisco, California in 1850 5
John Whipple, who settled in San Francisco, California in 1850
W. H. Whipple, who settled in San Francisco in 1850
Albert Whipple, who landed in San Francisco, California in 1850 5
Arnold Whipple, who arrived in San Francisco, California in 1850 5
... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Whipple migration to Canada +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Whipple Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century

William Whipple, who landed in Nova Scotia in 1760

Whipple migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. 6

Whipple Settlers in West Indies in the 17th Century

Francis Whipple, who settled in Barbados in 1683

Contemporary Notables of the name Whipple (post 1700) +

Mark Whipple (b. 1957), former American football coach and former player
Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901), American clergyman, the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota
Squire Whipple C.E. (1804-1888), American civil engineer who held two patents: Bowstring iron-bridge truss (1841) and the Lift draw bridge
Amiel Weeks Whipple (1818-1863), American military engineer, surveyor and brigadier general in the American Civil War, where he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville
George Chandler Whipple (1866-1924), American civil engineer and an expert in the field of sanitary microbiology, co-founder of the Harvard School of Public Health
Allen Whipple (1881-1963), American surgeon, eponym of the Whipple procedure
Commodore Abraham Whipple (1733-1819), American revolutionary naval commander who served in the Continental Navy, eponym of the USS Whipple (DD- 217/AG-117), a Clemson-class destroyer, the USS Whipple (FF-1062), a destroyer escort and the USS Whipple (DD-15), a torpedo boat destroyer
Maurine Whipple (1903-1992), American novelist
Joseph Whipple III (1725-1761), American deputy governor of Rhode Island, 1751-1753
John Adams Whipple (1822-1891), American inventor and early photographer
... (Another 5 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Citations +

Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Pilgrim Ship's of 1600's Retrieved January 6th 2023, retrieved from https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/shiplist.htm
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies