A site for people interested in the Seiple
surname and related spellings:
Sabel, Sapels, Sappel, Saybel, Scipel, Sciple,
Sabel, Seibel, Seible, Seipel, Seiple,
Sepple, Seybel, Seypell, Sibel, Sible,
Siple,
and Sippel.
Seiple, Seipel, and Siple are the three most
common spelling variations in the United
States. The surnames Seipel, Seiple,
and
Siple are of German origin. They are
variants
of the name Seibel or its earlier version
Seybel. In the Deutsches Namenlexikon by Hans Bahlow, the name Seibold is described
as a variant of Sigbald or Sibol, a
name
from middle Germany meaning victory.
The
short forms of Seibold are Seibel,
Seible,
and Seipel. Herr Bahlow also lists
the name
Seim or Sehm that has one of its variants
Seipel from Bavaria and Austria. German
records
show the name Sipel in Frankfurt in
1409
and Sypel in Worms in 1349.
Today in Germany the name is very common.
A search of the German telephone book
on
line revealed about 3000 Seibel and
2000
Seipel listings.
In America, the Seibel/Seybel or Seipel surname
was changed to Seiple and Siple. However,
there are many variants that fall under the
general Seipel category. The index of names
appearing in the church records in the Marx
Room in the Easton Public Library, Easton,
Pennsylvania has 18 variants of the Seipel
surname:
Sabel, Sapels, Sappel, Saybel, Scipel, Sciple,
Sabel, Seibel, Seible, Seipel, Seiple
Sepple,
Seybel, Seypell, Sibel, Sible, Siple,
and
Sippel.
The spelling of the name has changed over
the years due to the various recordings of
county clerks, census takers, and the people
themselves. Surname spellings have changed
from generation to generation. In some cases,
the last name for a husband and wife appear
differently. An example is two headstones
in the Old Williams Cemetery, Williams Township,
Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The headstone
for Henry Seiple [see photo] and Sarah "Wife of Henry Seipel"
[see photo] are next to each other! The great, great
grandfather of Roy Siple is buried
in the
Old Newton Cemetery in Newton, Sussex
County,
New Jersey. His headstone reads "John
Sciples." [see photo] John Sciples' son John spelled his name
Siple in 1838 and it has remained that
way
since then.
