Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch and North German : from Middle Dutch stoop, Middle Low German stōp ‘pitcher’, ‘stone bottle’, hence a nickname for a heavy drinker, or a metonymic occupational name for a wine seller or innkeeper.
- English : of uncertain origin, perhaps from Middle English stulpe, stolpe ‘post’ or ‘boundary marker’ (Old Norse stolpi), or from Middle English stoppe ‘bucket’ (Old English stoppa), hence a topographic name for someone who lived either by a boundary post or in a deep hollow. Alternatively, it could be a habitational name from a place so named, most probably Stop in Fonthill Giffard in Wiltshire, named with Old English stoppa ‘bucket’.