Origin of family name Lippens?

Question

My family name is Lippens. There is debate over whether we are Dutch heritage or Belgian heritage. My father was born in Indonesia while there were still Dutch colonies there. After the white people started getting killed there, they fled with the rest of the Dutch colony to the Netherlands and other parts of the world. So I have always thought we are Dutch. But Lippens does not sound very Dutch! It sounds more French - which is half the population of Belgium - and the sheer number of people with the last name Lippens in Belgium totally outnumbers those with the Lippens name in the Netherlands. My grandparents are dead and my father doesn't know his own history. Help?

Answer 1

Hey Sportyspice,

Swyrich.com has this:
Lippens
Origin: French

Spelling variations of this family name include: Lepine, Lepines, Lepinne, Lepinnes, Pine, Pines, Lespinasse, Lespinasses, Le Pine and many more.

First found in Limousin, where this noble family was seated since ancient times.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Charles Lepine who settled in Boston in 1765; Jacques Lepine who settled in Louisiana in 1765; and Louis Lepine who settled in Philadelphia in 1795.

LDS Family Search has both Belgian and Netherlands, 141 entries. There are 2 ways that could be suggested for you to determine this for sure. One would be to get into a DNA Project for the Lippens name. Names frequently originate from different places, this is first hand knowledge.

The other way is to do your Family Tree, at least the Lippens Branch, one generation at a time, until you have proven the link back to the origin. There are currently no FAMILY Tree DNA Projects with Lippens surname, so, you would have to start the project and hope to attract other Lippens throughout the world, OR, get into a different sort of DNA test, like the Halpogroup studies, that show migration paths.

Depending on how interested you are, my approach would be to start the Family Tree research. Then start a DNA Project.