This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the piper,' a player on the bagpipes.

'baggepipe cowde he blowe and sowne.': Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

Henry le Pipere, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Adam le Piper, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Arnald le Pyper. Issue Rolls.

Robert le Pipere. Writs of Parliament.

Peter le Pipre, Close Roll, 4 Edward I.

Whether this was the Peter Piper who originated the alliterative nursery rhyme, 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppercorns,' I cannot say.

John le Pipere, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Robert le Pipere, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

Ema Piper, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1714. Married — Hugh Piper and Elizabeth Matthews: St. George, Hanover Square.

From the occupation of piper."Anciently the name of Pyper was very frequent in Perth, and very Considerable Persons are called by that name in the Charters of the Religious Houses. About the time of the Reformation, the principal Families of that name changed it for Balneaves" (Sc. Ant., I, p. 165). William Pyper held lands of Innerbundy in 1457 (RAA., II, p. 97), Robert Piper contributed to the cost of church repairs in Aberdeen in 1508 (CRA., p. 79), and in the following year Robert Piper and John Piper were "comon menstrallis" in the same burgh (ibid., p. 440). Schir Johne Pipar was chaplain in Dunkeld, 1546 (Rollok, 21), and Hugh Pypar in Weik (Wick) had remission in 1547 for his share in taking and holding the castle of Akirgill in Caithness (OPS., II, p. 778). The fishings and annual rent of Kynnou'e were sold to John Pypar in 1562 (ER., XIX, p. 489), and the marriage of Alexander Balneaves alias Pyper and Janet Glook is recorded in 1565 (Sc. Ant., I, p. 165) Robert Pyper was a baxter in Inverness in 1609 (Rec. Inv., II, p. 73). Walter Pyper was town councillor of Perth in 1567 (RPC., I, p. 505), Donald Pyper in Feam was a follower of Ross of Morange in 1596 (RPC., V, p. 304), and William Peper, mylner of Eister Tyne, 1609 (RPC., VIII, p. 778). Donald Pepar or Pepper was dempster in Inverness, 1610-13 (Rec. Inv., II, p. 76,116), George Pyper was promoter of the stocking trade in Aberdeen in the Commonwealth and Restoration periods, and a commission of fire and sword was issued against Donald Pyper and John Pyper, sons of Patrick Pyperson, and others, fallowers of Murray of Aberscorse, Ross, in 1672 (RPC., 3. ser. III, p. 483). A family of this name settled in Goteborg in Sweden, and rendered their name (or had it rendered for them) by the classic Fistulator. Three families of the name are recorded (Marryat, One year in Sweden, II, p. 476).

= Piper, q.v.

A player on a bag-pipe. Le Piper, H.R. Though this droning music was never so popular in England as among the Celts of Scotland and Ireland, it was much in vogue in Northumberland down to a late period. Chaucer's miller-pilgrim, though a Southron, was a piper: —

Piper was a Sussex name in the 13th century (D.).