Family name origins & meanings
- Indian (northern states) : Hindu name meaning ‘lamp’, from Sanskrit dīpa. It occurs commonly as the final element of compound personal names, e.g. in Kuldeep ‘light of the family’. Subsequently, it appears to have evolved into a surname.
- English : presumably from the adjective deep, either a topographic name for someone who lived in a deep valley, or perhaps a nickname for a ‘deep’, thoughtful person.