Snibson

Recorded in many spellings including Sibb, Sibbs, Sibbet, Sibbett, Sibbitt, Sibson, and the dialectals Snibson and Sipson, this is an English surname. It is a metronymic, which is to say that it originates from a mothers name rather than the more usual patronymic or fathers name. The reasons are varied but usually because the mother was the land owner in her own right. In this case the derivation is from the personal name Sybil, which itself developed a wide range of short forms or nicknames throughout the medieval period such as Sib, Sibbe, and Siss. The name is biblical being given in the first instance to a prophetess who is supposed to have foretold the coming of Christ. With that sort of pedigree its success was assured, and particularly so from around the time of the Christian Revival in the 12th century, with the popular Crusades to "free" the Holy Land from the Muslims. The name was actually introduced into Britain by the Normans after 1066, and was popular for several centuries. After being dormant for sometime, it was revived in the 19th century, when Benjamin Disraeli in one of his novels, called his heroine Sybil. In this case early examples of the surname recording include Walter Sibile in the Hundred Rolls of Huntingdonshire in 1275, John Sibson in the manorial rolls of Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1314, Jone Sipson who married Roberte Greene at the church of St Mary Somerset, in the city of London, on August 25th 1579, and Anne Snibson who was christened at St Maragerts Westminster, on January 29th 1722.