Rankin Family History Project
Thorp/Thorpe Surname
Definition: dweller at the hamlet.
Most Norse place�names in England are habitative names. The majority of these
are compounds ending in "by" or "thorp". "By", at the time of its use in England,
meant "village" and "thorp" meant "secondary settlement, dependent outlying farm or hamlet".
In general, names ending in �by are older than names ending in �thorp.
Thorp is the 4,738th most popular last name (surname) in the United States.
Our earliest Thorpe ancestor is William, who travelled from London to North America in 1637 with the Puritan leaders John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton on the Hector. They founded and settled the New Haven Colony in 1638.
Source: US Census Bureau 1990
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Updated Wednesday, August 15, 2001
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