Crispin Family History

English; Spanish (Crispín): from the personal name Middle English Crispin Spanish Crispín from Latin Crispinus derived from crispus ‘curly-haired’ (see Crisp). This name was especially popular in France in the early Middle Ages having been borne by a Christian saint who was martyred at Soissons in AD c. 285 along with a companion Crispinianus (whose name is a further derivative of the same word). Compare Crespin and 3 below.

English (of Norman origin): from Old French and Middle English crespin crispin ‘curly-haired’ also found as Crepin; see Crippin. It is difficult to tell this apart from the personal name in 1 above. According to Lanfranc archbishop of Canterbury (1070–1089) the Norman Gilbert Crispin was the first man to receive this nickname and two of his sons adopted it as their surname.

His grandson Gilbert Crispin became abbot of Westminster in 1085. Members of the Norman family were said to have inherited a shock of hair that stood up stiffly like a bristly pine as though the name derived from Latin crispus pinus but this derivation is a medieval invention.

Americanized form of German Krispin and possibly also of Dutch Krispijn or Chrispijn, Czech Kryšpín or Krišpín, and Polish Kryszpin cognates of 1 above.