This unusual name is of pre 8th century and early medieval English origin. Recorded in many spellings including Ebs, Ebbe, Ebbs, Ebben, Ibben, Epp, Epps, Eppson, and Epperson, it derives from a short or pet form of either the female personal name "Isabella", or occasionally the masculine personal name "Herbert". "Isabel(la)" is a variant of "Elizabeth", which in its original hebraic form, "Elisheva", meant "my God is my oath", and generated a number of variant personal names such as Ebbe, Ebben, or Ibb and the diminutives Ebbet and Ibbot, with their patronymics Ebbetson and the more usual Ibbotson. Occasionally the modern surname is derived from "Herbert", the Germanic personal name and later surname, introduced into England by the Normans after the 1066 Invasion. This name is composed of the elements "hari", meaning "army", and "berht", meaning famous. At first glance this transposition is not easy to comprehend. The suffix "kin" or the short form "in" where they occur, refer to a close relationship, such as cousin. The "s" where this occurs is the patronymic short form meaning "son of ". Early examples of the surname recording include Adam Ebboth of Somerset in the year 1327, Robert Ebbys of county Suffolk in 1524, and Alicia Ebbins who married Robert Cashby at All Hallows church, London Wall, city of London, on April 25th 1661. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alica Ebbe, which was dated 1296, in the Subsidy Rolls of the county of Sussex". This was during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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