TAPLIN
Taplin is a surname of strictly English provenance, originating in the British Isles and recorded in the early English kingdom of Wessex during the mid‑thirteenth century. Its roots lie in the Old English word taepel, meaning a small nail or peg, and it therefore belongs to the class of occupational surnames given to artisans who produced or traded such metal fasteners.
The surname appears in a range of medieval documents under several variant spellings, including Tapplin, Taplyne, Taplyn, and Tappin. Earliest citations can be found in court rolls and feudal survey books such as the Assise Court Rolls of Warwickshire (1221) where a Robert Tappyng is recorded, and in the Book of Fees of Northamptonshire (1235) with a Geoffrey Tapping. These attestations confirm the surname’s presence in England during the early Modern period.
In the early sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, members of the Taplin family entered into marriages that were documented in parish registers. John Taplyn married Katheryne Warne at St. Katherine by the Tower, London, on 27 April 1615, while James Taplin married Hannah Haly at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, London, on 5 November 1638. Their offspring were subsequently recorded in christening registers across London and, by the late seventeenth century, figures such as Hana Taplin (born 1644) and Elizabeth Taplyne (born 1666) appeared in St. Nicholas Acons and St. Dunstan's Stepney respectively.
Several bearers of the name migrated beyond the British mainland. Miles Tappin, noted as an emigrant to the New World, witnessed the christening of his son William on 15 September 1679 in Barbados, evidencing the early trans-Atlantic movement of the family.
Contemporary distribution records indicate that the surname is still mainly concentrated in England, with the greatest density in the south‑east counties of Surrey, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The name is also recorded in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and the Channel islands, though in proportionally smaller numbers. In North America the surname appears chiefly in the United States, particularly in the Mid‑West and the South, and in Canada, often in provinces that received significant waves of English immigration.
By the early 21st century, the gathering indications from civil registration and census data suggest that fewer than five hundred people in the United Kingdom bear the surname Taplin, and that similar numbers—on the order of one thousand—can be found in the United States. These figures reflect the surname’s continued, though relatively uncommon, presence across the English‑speaking world.
Related surnames of the same linguistic origin include Taplyn, Tapling, Tapley, Taplen and Tappin. The surname shares a common ancestor with the more geographically descriptive family name Topling, which is derived from the Middle English top meaning the summit of a hill and the Norse word lyn meaning a village. The earliest recorded use of the surname Taplin dates back to the 13th century in Worcestershire, where a William Taplen appears in the Subsidy Rolls.
Typical given names associated with the Taplin surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Stephen
- William
Female
- Caroline
- Emma
- Julie
- Karen
- Kate
- Louise
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Patricia
- Rebecca
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Taplin in...
Braille
⠞⠁⠏⠇⠊⠝
Morse
-.-.--..-....-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 2,134 people named Taplin in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,973rd most common surname in Britain. Around 33 in a million people in Britain are named Taplin.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Taplin
- Oona Castilla Chaplin ['una kas'tija 't??aplin] - Spanish actress
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.