Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.
A study website has been preserved by the Guild: stamper.one-name.net
Welcome to The Stamper One-Name Study!
This study was founded by Jesse Stamper in October 2018 who registered the surname with the Guild of One-Name Studies for the purpose of identifying and tracing all Stamper families throughout the world. This study was founded by Jesse Stamper, a descendant of John Stamper (1647-1690) who emigrated to Middlesex County, Virginia in 1666 from Millbeck, Crosthwaite Parish, Cumberland, England. Over 95% of Stampers in the United States today are descendants of John.
Please visit our website at: http://stamper.one-name.net. For questions or comments, please contact Jesse Stamper at: stamper@one-name.org
The earliest record mentioning the Stamper surname dates from the 1200s. Since that time, some variations of the surname have appeared. Examples include Stamp, Stampar, Stampford, etc.
Stamper is an English surname probably of occupational origin. The earliest use of the surname that we've found to date is for John Stamper whose name appears in the Hundred Rolls for Cambridgeshire in the late 1200s. Further research has revealed the name in Cumberland (1465), Yorkshire (1496), Norfolk (1543), London (1546), Kent (1551), Lincolnshire (1559), Sussex (1593), Nottinghamshire (1601), Lancashire (1605), Essex (1622), and Durham (1640). Historically, the main clusters were in Cumbria, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire.
Patronymica Britannica: A Dictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom (1860) by Mark A. Lower.
STAMPER. Probably some mechanical employment.
A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, (1901) by Charles Wareing Bardsley.
STAMPER: Occup. ‘the stamper,’ probably a stamper of coins, a mint-man.
John Stamper, co. Camb., 1273. A.
Robert Stamper, co. York: W.16.
1658. Married — John James and Anne Stamper: St. Thomas the Apostle (London), p. 20.
1699-1700. Robert Stamper and Ann Man: Marriage Lic. (Faculty Office), p. 235.
London 1; MDB (co. Camb.), 9; Philadelphia, 1.
References: A (Hundred Rolls, 1273); W.16. (Surtees Society Publication: Depositions from York Castle; MDB (Modern Domesday Book, 1873); London (London Commercial Directories, 1870); Philadelphia (Philadelphia Directory, 1885, James Gopsill & Sons).
British Family Names: Their Origin and Meaning (1903) by Henry Barber.
STAMPER: From the Danish, Stampe; from the Dutch, Stamperius; from the Flemish, Stampaert; in the Domesday Book, Stamp; a personal name.
Family Names and Their Story (1910) by S. Baring-Gould.
STAMPER, the official who put the stamp either on tin or the nobler metals. It has been corrupted into Stammer. (p. 145)
Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary (1969) by Henry Harrison.
STAMPER: (Eng.) POUNDER; THRASHER; PRINTER; MINTER [M.E. stamper(e; f. M.E. stampen, O.E. stempan, to stamp, pound] John Stamper.—Hund. Rolls. (p. 183)
[References: f = from; M.E. (Middle English); O.E. (Old English).]
Yorkshire Surnames and the Hearth Tax Returns of 1672-73 (2002) by David Hey & George Redmonds.
North Yorkshire also had its rare occupational names which were confined to particular districts. Stamper, for example, may have originated in East Anglia but it occurs in York from the late 1400s and soon afterwards in Malton, where it appears to have expanded, if only modestly. In 1672-73 it was restricted to 7 households (4 in Malton and 1 each in nearby Normanby and in the market towns of Helmsley and Guisborough). (p. 13)
Dictionary of American Family Names (2013) by Oxford University Press.
English: from the agent derivative of Middle English stampen ‘to stamp’; probably an occupational name for a worker at a mint, someone who stamped coins.
A Dictionary of Yorkshire Surnames (2015) by George Redmonds.
STAMPER: It derives from the verb "to stamp" and is likely to be occupational in origin. In the 14th century the word was used in connection with threshing, crushing grapes, braying and pounding more generally, but the meaning of the by-name remains uncertain. The main home of Stamper in 1881 was the north-west, and Cumberland was the county with the largest total, followed by Lancashire. There was another smaller group in Lincolnshire but it was uncommon in Yorkshire except for one cluster in the Malton district. It has a long history there and in York: 1496 Richard Stamper, 1558 John Stamper, York, (SS96); 1572, William Stamper, New Malton (YRS19/148); 1673 Richard Stamper, New Malton (HT).
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (2016) edited by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, & Peter McClure.
STAMPER
Variants: Stamp
Current frequencies: GB 899, Ireland 7
GB frequency 1881: 676
Main GB location 1881: Cumb and Lancs; also Durham; Lincs.
English: occupational name from Middle English sta(u)mpere, recorded only in the sense ‘one who treads grapes’ but possibly also denoting one who crushes or pounds ingredients, or who threshes grain.
Early bearers: John Stamper, 1279 in Hundred Rolls (Cambs); Richard Stamper, 1496, John Stamper, 1558 in York Freeman’s Register; John Stamper, 1524 in Subsidy Rolls (Suffolk); William Stamper, 1544 in IGI (Aberford, WR Yorks); Anthonii Stamper, 1551 in IGI (Howden, ER Yorks); William Stamper, 1572 in York Registry Wills (New Malton, NR Yorks); John Stamper, 1574 in IGI (Gainsborough, Lincs); Cudbert Stamper, 1587 in IGI (Whitgift, WR Yorks); Adam Stamper, 1595 in IGI (Holme Cultram, Cumb); Thom Stamper, 1604 in IGI (Arundel, Sussex); John Stamper, 1653 in York Freeman’s Register; Fra. Stamper, 1671 in Parish Registers (Rothwell, WR Yorks). (p. 2529)
The following is a partial list of Stamper records from English and American sources.
13th century
15th century
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
Some of the more noteworthy bearers of the name:
Stamper and its variants are moderately rare surnames in England and the United States. In the 1881 Census, there were 679 occurrences of the name with the top area in Carlisle, Cumberland. Clusters were also present in Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Durham, and Yorkshire.
In the 1998 Census, there were 837 occurrences of the name with the top area again in Carlisle, Cumbria.
Mostly from Vital Records and census records.
Please visit the Stamper DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA): https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/stamper-dna-project/about
Please also visit YSEQ: https://www.yseq.net/product_info.php?currency=GBP&products_id=94289&osCsid=8ce55edf2cc6b1a895f536f8a37fe75d
Stamper Genealogy Resources:
Stamper Family Project (USA)
Stamper Family Project on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/StamperFamilyProject/
Stamper DNA Analysis Resources:
Stamper DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) - https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/stamper-dna-project/about
English Genealogy Resources:
Great Britain Family Names Profiling - https://named.publicprofiler.org/
Lincs to the Past (Lincolnshire History & Genealogy) - https://www.lincstothepast.com/
National Archives (UK) - www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/