Daily AncestorN.P.
N.P. after a name on a deed, affidavit or pension paper means notary public, the official who took the oath or acknowledgment.
N.P. stands for notary public. In the United States a notary is a public officer with limited powers, mainly to take oaths and witness signatures, not a lawyer.
The notary's name and county on a document show where the person signed, which can differ from where the deed was recorded. That is a clue to where the family lived at that moment.
As seen in a recordNotary block on a Civil War pension affidavit
Sworn before me, A. B. Price, N.P.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "N.P.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/np. Last checked 2026-10-10.