Cribb
Cribb is most likely a nickname surname built from an old Germanic root meaning “to plunder” or “to seize,” though the evidence is not fully certain.
The #9,125 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 86,290 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is probably connected with an old Germanic base found in forms such as Old High German hripo/hriffo and related later English forms like kibb or riff, which carried the sense of plundering or taking by force. In that tradition, Cribb would have begun as a nickname for someone thought of as a raider, taker, or rough character. The old sources do not give a fully secure derivation, so the exact pathway is uncertain.
History
The name appears in English records and later turns up in Britain and North America. By the 19th century it was already established enough to be listed among surnames in directories and on passenger or colonial references. Related spellings such as Cribbin, Cribbs, and Cribby suggest a small cluster of regional or family variants.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname writer grouped Cribb with a family of names thought to descend from an old word for plunder or rapine, showing how often nickname surnames were interpreted through moral or behavioral labels.
From the historical record
“Dike. Cribb. Cursin. Date.”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames