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Kibbe Origins

Re: Kibbe Origins

Posted: 27 Feb 2009 1:37AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kibbe, Kibby
As a Kibbe I usually notice nametags with various spellings of our name. I ran into a Kibby by marriage in Grand Rapids, Michigan this afternoon. You might check the Kent County Michigan records as well.

Re: Kibbe Origins

Posted: 27 Feb 2009 12:59PM GMT
Classification: Query
Even if you wanted to throw records and documentation out the window, my Kibbe line could not possibly be from the Middle East. My Grandmother, Reba Kibbe, and her siblings were light hair and fair skinned. There is no trace of Middle East there.

Patti

Re: Kibbe Origins

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 4:56PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kibbe, Kibbutz
Jonathan, some people aren't too wise online, so be careful of ignorance, as I have read a few replies to your post regarding Kibbe origin, made me chuckle a little.

During WW2, the Nazis was hunting down Jews throughout the world. But mainly in Germany, and so Jewish families had to change their last names, to hide from the Nazis. Thus, some Kibbes emerged, being Jewish. And at the same time, keeping their dignity in tact, by having knowledge of what Kibbe means, is like a chuckle to the Nazi party.

Wisdom will always overpower ignorance.

Re: Kibbe Origins

Posted: 16 Feb 2015 7:20PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 16 Feb 2015 7:56PM GMT
This is in the Oxford University Dictionary of Family Names:
Kibbe
Family History

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Kibbe Name MeaningEnglish: according to Reaney this is a nickname from an unattested Old English word cybbe meaning ‘clumsy’ or ‘thickset’. Reaney’s speculation is apparently based on taking the Middle English word kibble ‘cudgel’ as a diminutive of an unattested Old English word. Corresponding personal names have been postulated for the place names Kibworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybba’) and Kibblesworth (‘enclosure of a man called Cybbel’); so, in theory, the surname could be a reflex of these Old English personal names.North German: nickname for a cantankerous person, from Middle Low German, Middle High German kiven ‘to quarrel’.
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After our Kibbe's ancestor (Cushman- which is used in many of our subsequent Kibbies as a middle name) came over on the second Englishmans' Massachusetts boat to the US, eventually the name changed to Kibby Kibbie and Kibbee possibly as people often pronounced Kibbe incorrectly. Branches came off into all these spellings.

My sister Mimi and my cousin Nancy have researched our name way back to Exeter as well. Finding many past relations in the revolution. Mimi is part of DAR.

Another postulation on Kibbe origins with variations of spellings Kibby, Kibbye, Kybbye, Kibbee, Kibbe, Kibbie, Kibbey, etc., is a dialectical variation of a location- possibly in Northern England called Kirby, deriving from the Olde Norse "kirkja"
meaning "church" plus "byr" "settlement". The surname dates back to the mid 16th Century when last names started to be required for taxation purposes.

So Middle English not Middle Eastern. Someone has incorrectly attributed the middle eastern ground lamb dish to the name is all.

Colleen Kibbie-Vest
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