The Last Name
According to the well-known name analysts the name Stippler belongs to the kind of last names, which classify a craft, rank and degree of the former bearer. It is part of a large group, which was formed by job titles. Within these surnames the whole variety of professions, crafts, trade, management, administration of justice and social life of that time, in which they were generated and became hereditary, is represented.
The dialectal and geographical difference are important, too. Therefore some crafts have different terms. In general the wood-processing last names as Stippler, Küfer, Böttcher, Büttner and Schäffler stand for the manufacturer of barrels and drums. The original Low-German job designation "Bödecker" extended to the south-east part of the country. The common denomination for the craft as described above became cooper in today's standard language by the influence of Martin Luther. Barrels and drums were put together by single wooden staves and hold together by iron rods. This branch was not only established in large towns to the Middle Ages, however, it could be verified on the countryside, too. In comparison to the big cooper there was the small cooper as well. He produced smaller bowls by staves for the household. Therefore a Stippler produces "Stippel" and "Stipp-buckets" (scoops).
The cooper's trade with the different regionally depending terms of this trade had a great influence on the coinage of last names. In Hans Sachs's "Book of Social Classes" the name "Stübig" can be found in connection to products of a cooper. In particular it is very informative to compare the spreading of single words in today's dialects and last names. Regarding that it was possible to assign single words to a special dialect in the Middle Ages, the geographical origin could be determined. And even a linguistic postponement could be defined by comparisons in the last centuries. That's the reason for the many different names of a manufacturer of barrels and drums: Bädecker, Bödecker, Büttner, Fassbender, Küfer, Schäffler, and even Stippler.