The Whipple One-Name Study (WONS) was born on March 11, 2021, when Weldon Whipple registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS). His study of Whipples had begun much earlier, as a teenager. January 7, 1997, was an important milestone in his study. On that day he registered the whipple.org domain.

Initially intending to use whipple.org for email only, Weldon began considering ways to share on the Internet information he had discovered thus far. Having become a software engineer at IBM 13 years earlier, he accepted the challenge of creating a web site from information in his Personal Ancestral File (PAF) desktop software. After posting his Whipple ancestry back to Captain John Whipple of Providence, Rhode Island, he soon began receiving emails from distant cousins, many of them descendants of Captain John. Weldon added their information to his PAF database.

The tiny database has grown to include more than 170,500 relatives as of May 2024. Its focus includes:

1. All persons with a given name, middle name, surname or maiden name of Whipple or its variants
2. All descendants of the above (whether or not their name is still Whipple) 
3. Spouse(s) of the above
4. Parents of spouses.

All descendants are eligible for inclusion, even if their name is no longer Whipple; female descendants don't intentionally "daughter out" as their names change.

Non-Whipple ancestors of the above are generally not included. The following are examples of exceptions:

• Ancestral links that connect Whipple descendants to other Whipple relatives. (This occurs often in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.)
• Links that show other "interesting" relationships between/among Whipples
• Occasional exceptions are made for other reasons. (The database began as Weldon's personal database, so some of his own non-Whipple ancestors are still included.)

The WONS database includes Whipples from the United States, England, Australia, Japan, Germany, the Dominican Republic, and other places around the world. The database includes many noteworthy Whipples, a few of whom appear on the Notable Whipples page.

In his monumental four-volume genealogy of the Ipswich Massachusetts/Bocking England Whipples entitled 15 Generations of Whipples (Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 2007, p. 958), Blaine Whipple lists the following variant spellings found in English records:

Whiple, Whipp, Whippe, Whippill, Whipples, Whippul, Whippull, Whippyll, Whitell, Whittell, Whittle, Why___, Whyple, Whyppell, Whyppill, Whypple, Whyppull, Whyppul, Whyppyle, Whyppyll, Whyppylle, Whypull, Whypyll, Whytell, Whytle, Wibell, Wippell, Wippill, Wipple, Wipples, Wivell, Wyphyll, Wypple, Wyppull, Wyppyll, Wyppull Wyppyll, Wyppylle, Wytill, Whappill, Whelple, Whelppeley, Whepoelle, Whepells, Whepill, Whepille, Whepilles, Wheple, Wheples, Wheppell, Whepple, Wheppyl, Whepull, Whepyl, Whepyll, Wepell, Weppull, Wepull, Wepyll, Whatell, Whapells, Whaple, Whaples, Whaplet, Whaplett, Whapole, Whappell, Whappells, Warpell, Warple, Waupoull, Wauppoull, Waypole, Waypoole, Waapulls, Walbe, Walepell, Walple, Walpole, Walpoole, Wapell, Waple, Waples, Wapolle, Wapoole, Wappell, Wapple, Wapples, Wappoll, Wappoull, Wappull, Wapull, Wapulls.

One American Whipple branch migrated from Baden Baden (in present-day Germany) to the United States in the 1840s. A search of records in the Margraviate of Baden (which existed from 1112 until 1803) show individuals with surnames spelled Wippel, Wipple, and similar variations.

The Dictionary of American Names, page 232, states that a Whipple was originally "one who came from Whimple (white stream) in Devonshire."

According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, Whimple is from the Welsh "gwyn" (white) and "pwll" or "poll" (pool, stream). Variant forms of the name include Winple, Wimpoll, and Wympol.

The oldest record of the name is in the Domesday Book (A.D. 1086), where it is spelled "Winple."

Whipple researcher Dr. Charles M. Whipple reports that "the Whimple History Society (from Whimple, Old England) presents a compelling argument that the name Whipple means other than 'white stream.' The Society asserts that Whipple probably should have been interpreted as 'fair' or 'fine' stream."

Henry Whipple (about 1510-1585) of Dickleborough [today's Dickleburgh], Norfolk, England, was awarded the Whipple Coat of Arms twice (!!), in 1552 and 1576. Read more about Henry and the coat of arms. See also The Visitacion of Norffolk, Made and Taken by William Herven, Clarencieux King of Arms (London, 1891), p. 309. A copy of that publication appears on the WONS site. (The two awards are mentioned in the Harley manuscripts in the British Library.)

See the Whipple One-Name Study's Early Whipple Origins page for information about early Whipples.

Perhaps the most notable Whipple in the United States was the William Whipple of New Hampshire who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Commodore Abraham Whipple led the first open, armed opposition of the American colonies against the forces of His Magesty King George III, firing on the Gaspee on June 9, 1772. After the first American Navy of the Revolution was created June 12, 1775, Abe fired the first authorized naval gun at an English ship in the Atlantic. (See Who Was Commodore Whipple?)

Some others are mentioned at Notable Whipples on the WONS website.

See the Whipple DNA page.

• Whipple One-Name Study
• Database of the Whipple One-Name Study
• Whipple Genweb (deprecated)
• Whipple Blog
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Whipple Books
• Whipple DNA
• Whipple Reunions
• Photo Gallery