English: from Middle English clapper ‘rough bridge’,
applied as a topographic name or as a habitational name from any of
the numerous minor places named with this word.
English: nickname
from an agent derivative of Middle English clappe ‘chatter’.
Americanized spelling of German and Jewish Klapper
‘chatterer’.
Americanized form of German Klopper, a
metonymic occupational name relating to several trades, from Middle
Low German klopper ‘clapper’, ‘bobbin’, ‘hammer’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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