Staples
A surname usually meaning “of the staple” or “from Etaples,” with English and French place-name roots.
The #2,104 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,933 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is commonly explained in two related ways. In English records, it can be a genitive or plural form of Staple, referring to someone who lived “at the staple,” a market or trading center. Some writers also connected it with Etaples (older forms like Estaples), a seaport in northern France, though this is less certain as a general explanation for all bearers.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in forms such as de Stapel, and later as Staples and Stapler. It is especially associated with southern and eastern English record traditions, where surnames from markets, ports, and local settlements were common. Because the surname can arise from a place-name or from the occupational sense of “the staple,” different families may share the same spelling but not the same origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older English usage, “the staple” originally meant the market itself, not the goods sold there.
From the historical record
“term for a "distributor of rations." STAPLES, pi., and genit., of Staple, q.v, STAPLETON (Eng.) Bel. to Stapleton, the M.E. Stapleton, Stapelton, Stapilton, O.E. StapoltUn = the Staple-Enclosure (i.e. the enclosure — with dweUing(s — fenced in by posts) [O.E. stapol, a post, pillar, etc.. + tiin, enclosure, etc.]…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)