"Skipper Street may have been so called from having been the usual place of residence or temporary lodging of the skippers or masters of the vessels which belonged or traded to the port in early times" (George Benn, A History of the Town of Belfast, vol. i, 1877, p. 527). This seafaring link would make Skipper Street the earliest “Sailortown” of Belfast.
It was referred to as Skipper Lane in 1670 and was usually known by this or similar names in the 17th and 18th centuries. It may have existed earlier. It is marked on a reconstructed map of the town as it was in 1660, reproduced in Benn's History of Belfast. It is included under the name Skipper Street in the list of streets in the Belfast Directory 1831-1832. The 1839 edition of Martin’s Belfast Directory lists people living here.