Crippen
Crippen is likely a variant of Cripin/Crippin, a surname formed from a nickname or pet-name tradition rather than a single clear occupation or place-name.
The #9,956 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,233 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Crippen is probably a spelling variant in the same family as Crippin and Cripps, but the older dictionaries are not fully certain about its exact source. The form may ultimately go back to an old personal-name or nickname stem seen in medieval English and related continental forms. Some 19th-century scholars also compared it with older Germanic and French-looking name forms, but they did not settle on one secure derivation.
History
The surname appears in English records in variant spellings, especially in the broader Crippin/Cripps group. Because the old sources treat Crippen only as a comparison form, its separate history is hard to trace with confidence. In modern usage it remains relatively uncommon and is found chiefly in English-speaking countries, especially the United States and Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name was already being noticed by 19th-century surname scholars, but even they flagged it as hard to pin down precisely.
From the historical record
“phonetic ending. Old Germ. Rifuni, 8th cent. English Rippin, Crippen ? French Ribun, Riboni, Rivain. Another root of similar meaning may be ran, ren, from Old Norse rcena, spoliare, rdn, rapine. But this is difficult to separate in many cases”
— The Teutonic Name-System applied to the family names of France, England and Germany