Pepper
An English surname that may come from pepper dealers, a peppercorn rent, or a place-name, with several origins possible.
The #3,178 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,145 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Historical sources give more than one possible origin for Pepper. One line of explanation connects it with the spice word from Old English pipor, ultimately from Latin piper, and treats it as an occupational name for a pepper seller or spicer. Other authorities think the surname may instead come from Norman French Pipard or from place-names such as Pepperthorpe or Pepper Hall, while one source also points to a link with Old English pipere, meaning a piper or flute-player.
History
The surname is recorded in medieval England in forms such as Peper and Pepyr. Different writers have tried to explain it as occupational, locative, or even as a later folk association with peppercorn rents, so the name has a somewhat mixed scholarly history. Because of that, modern references usually treat Pepper as an English surname with more than one plausible source rather than a single fixed origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century authority thought Pepper might go back to the old custom of paying a nominal 'peppercorn rent'—though that explanation may be later than the surname itself.
From the historical record
“William Pepin.— ffa«rf. Rolls. PEPPER ^.-Lat. etc.) melon, for Pepperer, i.e. 3 Dealer in Pepper [O.E. pipor, Lat. piper, pepper] (Eng.) English placfe-names like Pepper- thorpe, Pepper-Hall, etc., show that this surname must have another origin-;— prob. (notwithstanding the long t) the O.E. pipere, a piper: we…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)