Rip

Rip is best known through Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving's character who sleeps for twenty years in the Catskill Mountains. The story, published in 1819, helped make the short name part of American literary folklore. Its fictional Dutch-American setting is a cultural association rather than proof of one certain linguistic meaning for Rip.

The name has also appeared as a nickname, as with actor Rip Torn, whose given name was Elmore. This shows how it can develop independently of a conventional longer name. Parents considering Rip may value its brevity or a connection with literature, while recognizing that English speakers also know rip as an ordinary verb. Its strongest documented background is the history of its bearers and fictional characters, with the older derivation left open.