Apps
One-Name Study

Topics

• About the Apps One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Historical occurrences
• Frequency of the name
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Contact Details

About the Apps One-Name Study

The aim of the APPS One-Name Study is to collect family history data on the names APPS, APSE, APS, ASP, HAPPS and, where the name is a variant, EPPS.

The study started in 1998 with my own APPS family tree and has developed into a full One-Name study using the data and information gathered during those 10 years. The name was registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 2009.

The ogjectives are:

• Collect data about past and presesnt holders of the name APPS and its variants.
• Identify and document family trees.
• Make data available to others researching their APPS ancestry.
• Analyse accumulated data to establish links and origins of the name.

Variants

The main variants of APPS are APSE, APS and HAPPS but regional dialect and accents have caused the spelling of the written name to vary over the centuries and other variants and spellings such as ASP, APPSE, APPES, APES and APPCE are to be found.

The name EPPS has similar origins. The spoken names APPS and EPPS sound very alike and have existed side by side for centuries sometimes with the spelling switching from one form to the other especially when somebody with the name has moved to a different area where the name is unfamiliar. EPPS has therefore been included in my study but, for the time being, only to the extent that it has occured as a true variant of APPS.

EPPS similarly has variants such as EPSE and EPPES etc and these have been excluded from my study unless there is a definite connection with an APPS tree.

I have also excluded ABBS and EBBS which, although are likely to originally have been variants of APPS and EPPS, have been distinctly separate names for centuries.

Origin of the surname

According to various works on the subject of surnames and their origins the name APPS is said to be derived from the Old English word 'aepse' meaning aspen. The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames quotes two early examples of the name from the Sussex Subsidy Rolls, Robert atte Hepse 1296 and Robert atte Apse 1327, and gives the meaning of the name as 'Dweller by the Aspen'.

APPS is therefore a topographical name and originates from the south east of England where it is still particularly prolific in the area of the Kent Sussex border.

The spoken names APPS and EPPS sound alike and it is very likely that the two names have the same locative origin making EPPS a variant of APPS and vice versa. EPPS also originates from the south east of England and the name occurs most frequently in the east of the county of Kent.

The website Ancestry suggests that EPPS may also be derived from the Old English personal name Eoppa or the Danish name Opi or even that it has Dutch origins as a habitational name for somebody from a place called Epse, ie. van Epps.

Lou Poole in his 'Study of the Epes Family of Virginia' has an interesting theory that the surname EPPES is of baptismal origin meaning 'the son of Ebb', Ebb apparently being a popular nickname for Isabella at that time. This study contains interesting data on early EPPS and APPS families from Kent and Sussex and especially of a Francis Epps who emigrated to Virginia in the early 1600's. The 'Study of the Epes Family of Virginia' can be found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poythress/Epes.html

Whatever the origins of the name, and there are likely to be more than one, the names APPS and EPPS certainly come from Sussex and Kent. It is my intention to study the subject of the origin of the names further.

There are two known place names in England with the name APPS. Apse Heath on the Isle of Wight and Apps Court in Surrey situated between Waltham-on-Thames and West Molesey. Apps Court was a manor house built originally in 1332 and there was apparently a village named Apps nearby. See www.walton-on-thames.org/history/appscourt.htm. The house was demolished in 1899 and Apps Court is now a centre for outdoor leisure activities.

There has been an APPS branch in this part of Surrey since the late 18th century but, so far as I am aware, there is no evidence that the surname originates from this area.

Historical occurrences

In spite of accumulating a vast database of APPS families and individuals with various occupations and differing trades and professions I have not yet knowingly come across any famous APPS or any occurence of particular historical note involving an APPS. This does not mean to say that there will not be some additions to this section in the future and I would welcome any input from other APPS researchers.

Frequency of the name

The name APPS occurs with moderately high frequency. However, from personal experience I find that even within the UK the name is relatively unknown and unfamiliar away from the south east of England.

The National Trust statistics for Great Britain show that there were 1345 occurences of the name APPS in 1881 (rank order 2993) increasing to 1594 in 1998 (rank order 3504).

ONS statistics for England and Wales in 2002 show that there were 2206 people with the APPS name and that it ranked 3379 in popularity. In comparison there were 1082 people with the EPPS name and that name ranked 6241 in popularity.

It is known that there are established APPS families in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States and any information from other researchers on the frequency and distribution of the name in these and other countries where there are APPS families would be welcomed.

Distribution of the name

The name APPS originates from the south east of England and a study of the 16th, 17th and 18th parish records from the Sussex Kent border area shows the name to have been most concentrated in the parish of Wadhurst, Sussex which borders with the county of Kent.

By the end of the 18th century there were also established groups of APPS families in East Sussex and Cornwall..

An analysis of the 19th century censuses for England and Wales shows how the name APPS is beginning to become distributed throughout the country. Variants have been ignored in this analysis.

1841: Total APPS 772. Kent 334, E and W Sussex 228, Middlesex and London 64, Surrey 61, Hampshire 22, Cornwall 32, Somerset 18. 73% live in Kent and Sussex.

1861: Total APPS 951. Kent 375, E and W Sussex 261, Middlesex and London 71, Surrey 119, Hampshire 33, Cornwall 40, Somerset 14, Warwickshire 9. 67% live in Kent and Sussex.

1881: Total APPS 1343. Kent 498, E and W Sussex 332, Middlesex and London 117, Surrey 186, Hampshire 66, Cornwall 37, Somerset 13, Warwickshire 20, Devon 14, Co Durham 12. 62% live in Kent and Sussex.

1901: Total APPS 1717. Kent 594, E and W Sussex 299, Middlesex and London 336, Surrey 172, Hampshire 109, Cornwall 19, Somerset 14, Warks and Worcs 30, Devon 21, Co. Durham 15. 52% live in Kent and Sussex.

From the above it can be seen that, as well as APPS roots still in Kent and West Sussex, branches of the APPS tree have already become well established in East Sussex, Surrey, Greater London, Hampshire, Cornwall, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, Somerset and Devon, and Co. Durham. My own branch is the Horley, Surrey branch. Each branch, as it is identified, is being researched in detail and wherever possible traced back to its West Sussex or Kent roots.

The National Trust on their site www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk shows that the post code area with the highest concentration of APPS in Great Britain in both 1881 and 1998 was Tunbridge Wells. The area with the highest concetration of EPPS was Canterbury in both 1881 and 1998.

APPS and EPPS individuals and families have emigrated to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States and some Apps were transported to Australia as convicts. There is a branch of my Horley, Surrey APPS tree in Canada which started in 1912 in Manitoba.

An important part of my research is to gather and collate information on APPS branches abroad and trace their origins back to the UK and Sussex or Kent. Data collection has started but this part of my research is still in its infancyand I would welcome any cooperation from APPS researchers in other countries.

Data

Data collection of all APPS marriages in England between 1837 and 1911 is well advanced and EPPS marriages are also being collected. A considerable amount of data is held of Surrey, Sussex and some Kent APPS families as well as of groups that have been identified in other English counties as outlined above.

From data that I have accumulated I have reconstructed two family trees for the Horley, Surrey branch, one for the Wadhurst, Sussex branch and three for the Tunbridge Wells branch. I am still in the process of reconstructing trees for the West Molesey, Birmingham, Cornwall, Devon and Durham branches.

Meanwhile data gathering continues.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Andrew Apps
5 Waterside Close,
Darley Abbey,
Derby
DE22 1JT
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 22 February 2010.

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.