Recorded as Stripp, which is the most popular of the spellings and the much rarer Strapp and Strepp, this most interesting and unusual surname can be of early medieval English, German or Dutch origins. Firstly, it may be a shortened form of the Middle English "stryplynge", meaning a youth. Secondly, it can be occupational for someone who farmed a long narrow tract of land called a "strippe", thirdly and specifically in the Netherlands it may originate from "stripp", a nickname given to someone marked in some way with a stripe or streak of white hair. Early examples of the surname include the marriage of William Stripp and Margaret Vervey on December 30th 1603, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, in London; the christening of Ann Strap on July 31st 1605, also at St. Dunstan's, and the marriage of Margaretha Strip and Christian Kluemper on June 15th 1706, at Alstaette Ahaus, Sankt Marien, Westfallen, Germany. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Herman Strepe, which was dated 1325, in Lubeck, Germany, during the reign of Louis 1V of Bavaria (1314 - 1347) and Frederick of Hapsburg (1314 - 1325) Co-regents of the Holy Roman Empire. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.