Family name origins & meanings
- German : from Middle High German klüpfel, klöpfel, klüppel ‘mallet’, ‘cudgel’, ‘clapper (of a bell)’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of cudgels and mallets or clappers for bells or a metonymic occupational name for a butcher, a stone-breaker. This name also became established in Greece by followers of King Otto, of Bavarian origin.