Batrip

Recorded in many forms including Baterip, Baterup, Batrop, Batrip, Batripp, Baytrip, Baytripp, Batrup, and no doubt others, this is presumably an English surname and locational. However spelt it is quite rare, although from about 1660, and the reign of King Charles 11nd of England (1660 - 1685), there seems to have been a little enclave of family recordings in the town of Great Waltham in Essex. As to where the name originates from is unknown. It does not appear in the Dictionary of English Place Names, suggesting that whilst it may once have been a place, if so it no longer survives. This is not unusual. It has been estimated that as many as five thousand English and Scottish surnames originate from "lost" medieval villages, whose only reminder of their existence lies in the surviving surname. It is also possible that the current surname is a transposed spelling of an existing place, but if so this might be with the town of Bacup in Lancashire. This name translates as "the ridge above the valley" and this is a fainly possible origin. Certainly the suffix of "up or op" is a form of "cop" meaning a head, as in head of a valley. The first recording that we can find is that John Baytrip at Great Waltham on March 31st 1662, and Sarah Batrip christened at White Waltham on April 11th 1669.