When used purely as a surname, the word may also be interpreted as Middle English piper n. ('workman who lays pipes') or peper n. ('pepper'). However, the former word is otherwise not attested in Anglo-Norman, whereas the latter, indeed a variant spelling of pevere, is not otherwise attested as a surname in Anglo-Norman.

In continental French, the cognate word is only attested with a more figurative sense of 'trompeur, tricheur', derived from the verbal sense of piper: 'to hunt a bird by imitating its call' and hence 'to trick, deceive' (both senses not attested in Anglo-Norman piper²). It therefore seems likely, that the Anglo-Norman term was a borrowing from English.