The Knoepp name is rare, distinctive, and likely German in origin. Genealogical references describe Knoepp as a variant of Knopp, a surname rooted in the Middle Low German word knōp, meaning “button” or “rounded hill”. In other words, the name may trace back to a button-maker, a person known by a rounded feature or build, or a family that lived near a rounded hillock. Over centuries of migration and record-keeping, related spellings such as Knöpp, Knopp, Knoop, and Knopf may have branched from the same linguistic neighborhood.