Thigpen
An English surname of uncertain origin, likely a regional variant of an older place-name or nickname form.
The #3,784 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,989 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Thigpen is generally treated as an English surname, but its exact derivation is not securely established. It may be a regional or altered form of an older surname built from a place-name or from a personal nickname that was reshaped in spelling over time. Because the name is not well documented in the standard surname dictionaries, a precise literal meaning cannot be stated with confidence.
History
The surname is most familiar in the United States, where it appears especially in the South. Like many uncommon English surnames, its modern spelling may reflect long local development, migration, and later standardization rather than a single fixed medieval form. The name is rare enough that families with this surname may not share one neatly traceable origin line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because the name is uncommon and not firmly explained in the major classical surname dictionaries, family historians often have to rely on local records and DNA matches to sort out separate Thigpen lines.