From a German surname meaning 'warrior' or 'combatant,' derived from Middle Low German 'kempe.'
Kemper is a surname of both English and German origin, deriving from the Middle English and Middle High German word "kempe" or "kempfer," meaning warrior or champion — a word that in turn traces back to the Latin "campus" (field of battle). In medieval England a "kemp" was a fighting man, and families who bore the surname were often tracing ancestry to someone who distinguished themselves in combat or athletic contest. The name also functions as an English place name, with a Kemper in Worcestershire having lent its identity to various families.
As a given name Kemper belongs to the American tradition of bestowing family surnames on children, particularly prominent in the South and in families with strong lineage consciousness. It has never entered mainstream popularity lists but moves in circles that favor preppy, WASP-adjacent surnames-as-firsts — names like Mercer, Sutton, and Thatcher that feel like they belong to someone wearing a blazer. Kemper Insurance Group, founded in 1912, made the name familiar as a corporate brand in American financial life, giving it a certain boardroom heft.
In contemporary culture Kemper is perhaps best known as the surname of comedian Ellie Kemper, whose cheerful, high-energy persona on The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt brought the name consistent visibility through the 2010s. For parents, Kemper as a first name occupies a pleasing rarity — distinctive without being invented, classical without being stuffy, and carrying an etymological backbone of warrior strength that reads as quietly powerful.