Thigpen Family History

Probably an altered form of English Thickpenny which belonged to a late 15th-century merchant family based in Plymouth (Devon) and in York. In the 16th and 17th centuries it is recorded as a gentry surname in Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, East Anglia, and Ireland.

The surname appears to be a nickname ‘thick penny’ but the motivation is obscure, and it may be an altered form by folk etymology of some other name. In North America and Ireland, there is a close family relationship between persons named Thigpen and those named Phippen.

However, if the two names are linguistically related, it is more likely that Phippen would be a simplified pronunciation of Thickpenny alias Thigpen than the other way round.