The names Staple and Stapel
(home = www.cstapel.nl)
Geographical names
The familynames Staple and Stapel are toponyms, derived from the geographical term "staple" for places where people gathered, often with their goods. The Dutch Familienamenbank and the English Staplesclan each list a few handfuls of the 75 staple related names on the map shown below. A German "Wikipedia" page mentions six places named Stapel and the American "Staple & Staples My Family Branch" counts 33 names including "staple".
Many such places had the "staple right", requiring merchands in the region to offer their strategic quality goods like corn, leather, ore, salt, wine, wood, wool in that town first. A staple could also be a landmark between territories or any feature presented by or put in the landscape serving as a gathering point for worship, executions or festivities.
The related word "steeple" appears in 10 English place-names, with the narrower meaning of spire or church tower, the early days steeplechase finish.
The map shows the geographical spread of the Old Saxon word "stapol or stapel", in relation to Europe at large. Of old confined between Rhinedelta and Elbe, after Roman Times it migrated with Anglo-Saxon tribes over seas to England and northern France, where it gradually frenchified into staple, following the eleventh century's Norman Conquest. It does scarcely occur where the Celts maintained their culture or later in overseas territories. Geographical names with stapel apparently came from the spreading Anglo-Saxons mainly, until their defeat in 1066, the battle of Hastings.
- Germany counts 17 places with stapel, four are named Stapel as such. Four lie above the Elbe with Stapel (Amt Neuhaus) closest to the river.
- The Netherlands have 8, including De Stapel in Drenthe, already well known in 1421 for its sheep. Stapele(n) is the only one below the great rivers.
- England has Staple Island & Sound, 8x Stapleton, 8x Stapleford, Stapeley, Staploe, Staplow and 16 more below 51.5°N lat.=London with Staple in Kent.
- Ireland has Staplestown, unique in a Celtic environment, a hamlet possibly founded when English immigrants built a manor there in the 17th century.
- France has Staple or Stapel and the southernmost place Étaples 1), Stapel by name until the medieval language border moved further north.
- Belgium, Finland and Sweden have no such places but streetnames instead: Stapelplein, Stapelstraat, Stapelgränd, Stapelgatan, Stapelvägen.
- Denmark has no geographical names with Stapel, but like in Sweden there are streetnames with stabel: Stabelvej, Stabelsvej, Stabelvegen.
- Other countries, including the Celtic regions Brittany, Cornwall, Scotland and Wales have no places or streetnames with stapel, stabel or staple. 2)
1) In northern France, at the river Canche's mouth, Pas-de-Calais, the French Charles VIII of Valois signed the Peace of Étaples. This treaty assigned Britanny to France, in
exchange for a French recognition of and payment to the English Tudor Henry VII. The Peace dates Nov. 3, 1492, three weeks after Columbus landed on the Bahama's.
Also in 1492 Gerard van Wou from Kampen (NL) founded the bronze bell for the 13th century's church of Stapel, Sachsen Anhalt (G), the easternmost stapelplace of all.
2) Geografical names are taken from above websites and from atlas, roadmaps, Google-earth, Google-maps, yourney planners and internet search-engines. The smallest
places may not have been referenced by all, but when mentioned by one they have been included here.
History of the family name
While nobility distinguished their generations of old by number and toponym (the 7th Earl of Cardigan), their serfs used patronymics (Johnson). In expanding cities however the many thousands of citizens could no longer be told apart by common patronymics. The emergent bourgeoisie marked the appearance of new family names often referring to other ancestral features, such as: appearance (Small, Black), origin (Oxford, Staple), environs (Forest, Brooks), profession (Smith, Saylor) and more. This explains why many family names like Stapel only began to appear in the Late Middle Ages. Because so many geographical names include staple or stapel, it is precarious to name one of them as our origin without genealogical support. Some believe (see H. Stapel in "Stapel is de naam" p.343 f) that one or more if not all families may share a common origin in a Saxon Stapel village and followed Hanseatic trade along Baltic and North Sea shores. This seems interesting enough in its historical logic, but it is not documented. Possibly well designed dna research could support this assumption. The American Peter Staple Heritage Group, related to the S&SMFB, has started a DNA project to explore possible family ties. Its importance to continental European Stapels is doubtful, since the familyname was spread in America a millennium after the geographical name crossed the North Sea to England. Frenchified familynames are more likely to relate to French or English settlements.
(www.cstapel.nl)
(home = www.cstapel.nl)
Geographical names
The familynames Staple and Stapel are toponyms, derived from the geographical term "staple" for places where people gathered, often with their goods. The Dutch Familienamenbank and the English Staplesclan each list a few handfuls of the 75 staple related names on the map shown below. A German "Wikipedia" page mentions six places named Stapel and the American "Staple & Staples My Family Branch" counts 33 names including "staple".
Many such places had the "staple right", requiring merchands in the region to offer their strategic quality goods like corn, leather, ore, salt, wine, wood, wool in that town first. A staple could also be a landmark between territories or any feature presented by or put in the landscape serving as a gathering point for worship, executions or festivities.
The related word "steeple" appears in 10 English place-names, with the narrower meaning of spire or church tower, the early days steeplechase finish.
The map shows the geographical spread of the Old Saxon word "stapol or stapel", in relation to Europe at large. Of old confined between Rhinedelta and Elbe, after Roman Times it migrated with Anglo-Saxon tribes over seas to England and northern France, where it gradually frenchified into staple, following the eleventh century's Norman Conquest. It does scarcely occur where the Celts maintained their culture or later in overseas territories. Geographical names with stapel apparently came from the spreading Anglo-Saxons mainly, until their defeat in 1066, the battle of Hastings.
- Germany counts 17 places with stapel, four are named Stapel as such. Four lie above the Elbe with Stapel (Amt Neuhaus) closest to the river.
- The Netherlands have 8, including De Stapel in Drenthe, already well known in 1421 for its sheep. Stapele(n) is the only one below the great rivers.
- England has Staple Island & Sound, 8x Stapleton, 8x Stapleford, Stapeley, Staploe, Staplow and 16 more below 51.5°N lat.=London with Staple in Kent.
- Ireland has Staplestown, unique in a Celtic environment, a hamlet possibly founded when English immigrants built a manor there in the 17th century.
- France has Staple or Stapel and the southernmost place Étaples 1), Stapel by name until the medieval language border moved further north.
- Belgium, Finland and Sweden have no such places but streetnames instead: Stapelplein, Stapelstraat, Stapelgränd, Stapelgatan, Stapelvägen.
- Denmark has no geographical names with Stapel, but like in Sweden there are streetnames with stabel: Stabelvej, Stabelsvej, Stabelvegen.
- Other countries, including the Celtic regions Brittany, Cornwall, Scotland and Wales have no places or streetnames with stapel, stabel or staple. 2)
1) In northern France, at the river Canche's mouth, Pas-de-Calais, the French Charles VIII of Valois signed the Peace of Étaples. This treaty assigned Britanny to France, inexchange for a French recognition of and payment to the English Tudor Henry VII. The Peace dates Nov. 3, 1492, three weeks after Columbus landed on the Bahama's.Also in 1492 Gerard van Wou from Kampen (NL) founded the bronze bell for the 13th century's church of Stapel, Sachsen Anhalt (G), the easternmost stapelplace of all.2) Geografical names are taken from above websites and from atlas, roadmaps, Google-earth, Google-maps, yourney planners and internet search-engines. The smallestplaces may not have been referenced by all, but when mentioned by one they have been included here.
History of the family name
While nobility distinguished their generations of old by number and toponym (the 7th Earl of Cardigan), their serfs used patronymics (Johnson). In expanding cities however the many thousands of citizens could no longer be told apart by common patronymics. The emergent bourgeoisie marked the appearance of new family names often referring to other ancestral features, such as: appearance (Small, Black), origin (Oxford, Staple), environs (Forest, Brooks), profession (Smith, Saylor) and more. This explains why many family names like Stapel only began to appear in the Late Middle Ages. Because so many geographical names include staple or stapel, it is precarious to name one of them as our origin without genealogical support. Some believe (see H. Stapel in "Stapel is de naam" p.343 f) that one or more if not all families may share a common origin in a Saxon Stapel village and followed Hanseatic trade along Baltic and North Sea shores. This seems interesting enough in its historical logic, but it is not documented. Possibly well designed dna research could support this assumption. The American Peter Staple Heritage Group, related to the S&SMFB, has started a DNA project to explore possible family ties. Its importance to continental European Stapels is doubtful, since the familyname was spread in America a millennium after the geographical name crossed the North Sea to England. Frenchified familynames are more likely to relate to French or English settlements.
(www.cstapel.nl)