Tippah County is a county located on the northern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,232. Its county seat is Ripley. The name "Tippah" is derived from a Chickasaw language word meaning "cut off." It was taken from the creek of the same name that flows across much of the original county from northeast to southwest before emptying into the Tallahatchie River. The creek probably was so named because it, and the ridges on either side, "cut off" the western part of the region from the eastern portion.