Tabb
An English surname that is most often a short form of a medieval name such as Tab(b)e or Tebb, though some lines may also be linked to older personal names.
The #7,698 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 71,601 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Tabb is usually treated as a shortened form of a personal name beginning with Tab- or Teb-, rather than from a place or occupation. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname writers connect it with short forms such as Tebb, Tibb, or Tabbepe, and Harrison notes an old Anglo-Saxon personal name Teebba as a possible remote source. In some cases it may also reflect a diminutive or familiar form of a fuller medieval given name, but the exact root is uncertain.
History
The name appears in English records as a rare surname and is not especially common in the medieval period. Later surname dictionaries repeatedly list it alongside related forms like Tapp, Taber, and Tabberer, suggesting a family of nicknames and short personal-name forms rather than a single fixed origin. Because the underlying personal name is obscure, different sources hedge or offer only tentative explanations.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books even compare Tabb with the old Anglo-Saxon personal name Teebba, though they treat that connection cautiously rather than as certain fact.
From the historical record
“TABARAR = Tab(b)epep, q.v. TABB, an abbrev. of one of the Tab(b- names. The rare A.-Sax. pers. name Teebba (7th cent.), of uncertain orig., can hardly have left descendants. TAB(B)ERER (A. - Fr. - Span. - Ar.) Tabour- Player ; Drummer [M.E. tab(o)urer ; f. M.E. O.Fr. tabo(u)r (Fr. tambour), a small”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)