This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the crisp,' i.e. with the curly hair. 'Crisping-pins,'

'Cryspe, as here (hair), or other lyke': Promptorium Parvulorum.

'And yet also of our prentis Jankin. For his crispe here, shining as gold so fin.' Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

Robert le Crespe, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Thomas le Crespe, Somerset, ibid.

Gilbert le Crispe, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Reginald le Crispe. Placitorum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi.

Richard Cryspe, Close Rolls, 8 Richard II.

(a) Bapt. —the son of Crispin,' from the nick. Crisp; v. Cripps (a).

1533. Thomas Cryspe and Anne Staleham: Marriage Lic. (London).

1603. Married — Hatton Crispe and Joane Fenton: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1788. — John Robson and Mary Crisp: St. George, Hanover Square.

(Anglo-Latin) 1 Curly-headed [Middle English crispe, Old English crisp, Latin crisp-us] Gilbert le Crispe.—Hundred Rolls Crispe was his heer, and eek ful bright.— Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, 824.

2 a diminutive of Crispin, q.v.

Nickname for Crispin in Old English.

The curt or abbreviated form of Crispin.

From Crispin.

An abbreviation of Crispin, a Norman name (Lower).

Crisp is an ancient East Anglian name. It occurred commonly in Cambridgeshire and Hunts in the 13th century, Crysp being then a rare form of the name (H. R.). In Norfolk, where it is still established, it was represented as far back as the 14th century, and further reference will be found to it under that county. There was a gentleman of Connington, Cambridgeshire, bearing the name of Thomas Crispe in 1433 (Carter). However, in later times, an important family of Crispe established itself in Kent. The Crispes, of Quekes, in Birchington, Kent, who possessed the manor of Quekes in the 16th and 17th centuries, filled the office of high sheriff of Kent in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and Nicholas Crispe of this family about those times received the honour of knighthood; there were several branches of this family, of which that of West Ham, Essex, in the 17th century, was said to be one; the Crispes of Quekes are said to have descended from an ancient family of Stanlake, Oxfordshire (Hasted's "Kent"). In the 17th century a gentle family of Crisp resided at Marshfield, Gloucestershire (Bisrland's "Gloucestershire").

Crisp is an ancient Norfolk name. In 1388, Richard Crispe was patron of the living of Cockthorp, to which he presented one of the family; another Richard Crispe was buried in Erenze church in 1517 (Bl.) In 1648, the daughter of the "Worshipfull Mr. Nic. Crispe, Marchant Adventurer of London," was buried at Norwich (Bl.). Nicholas Crisp, Esq., was one of the county commissioners for Cornwall in the time of Cromwell (Polwhele's "Cornwall"). See under "Cambridgeshire," where the name has been for six centuries.