We do not know definitively where the name Chippenhook came from. There are not any towns out there anywhere that share this name nor have we found a Lord Chippenhook back in England. This is as compared to the name Clarendon of which there are many towns called Clarendon. See the Clarendons Here, There, Everywhere entry in this collection for more on that.
Chippenhook was honored by a company in TX taking the name Chippenhook for themselves after the founder vacationed in the area and was smitten with the name. See the Chippenhook, the Company entry in this collection for that story. Beyond that all we've found are a couple roads named Chippenhook. There is a cul-de-sac named
Chippenhook Court in a condominium complex in Dublin, OH
and a street named Chippenhook Court in an Austin, TX subdivision. It isn't uncommon for developers in other parts of
the country to use New England style names to give a place a quaintness
factor. Chippenhook Court in Ohio is next to Dummerston Court, another
Vermont name. That Austin, TX subdivision also has a Tinmouth St. Both of those streets could well have been named after us.
So where did the name Chippenhook come from? We have three hypotheses as to the origin of the name.
1) According to the 1976 history book the name Chippenhook may have been an
English spelling applied to the Native
American name Kchi-pen-ho-ac which means Great Rapids Place. Great
Rapids might be an overstatement if referencing the Clarendon River
dropping down into Chippenhook but Kchi-pen-ho-ac becoming Chippenhook
could well be what happened.
2) The 1976 history book also offered another possibility which was
maybe there was an early settler named
Chippen that lived here to which the Dutch suffix
"hook" (meaning place) was added. On old maps Chippenhook was two words Chippen Hook which might add some credence to that possibility. However, we've yet to come across
documentation of a Chippen family nor a Chippenhook family for that
matter.
3) In our Flora Weeks (1905 - 2002) material we have a story she had gotten from Adah Walker (1881 - 1963) suggesting an unusual happenstance as the origin of the name:
"There
are two small houses on the corner of the roads in the village. They
are close together on the west side of the north and south road at the
corner. Their back yards, adjoined. In the days of wood burning stoves
every home had a wood shed, and a yard where wood was sawed and chopped;
and the chips lay drying ready to be picked up to kindle the fire in
the house.
One day the two women who were such near neighbors were scolding and accusing each other of stealing "their" chips.
A man passing by this sharp corner, quite like a hook, heard the women's loud words and his comment was Chipping Hook.
The story was told and retold and the name finally became permanent, also controversial".
Below is the actual document from Flora Weeks and below that an article from 4-19-1987 that supports (perhaps repeats?) Adah Walker's story.