When eating bacon with your fingers, you
need a napkin. The word comes from Middle English, borrowing the
French nappe, a cloth covering for a table and adding kin, the
diminutive suffix. The English word napkin means, “A usually square
piece of cloth, paper, etc., used at a meal to wipe the fingers and
lips and to protect the clothes”
That same “nappe,” led to the English “apron,” which was originally
“napron.” Through a linguistic process the initial “n” of “napron”
in the phrase “a napron” shifted and produced “an apron.”
The use of paper napkins is documented in ancient China, where paper
was invented in the 2nd century BC. In Roman times, each guest
supplied his own mappa and, on departure it was filled with
delicacies leftover from the feast. German-speaking people were
reputed to be such neat diners that they seldom used a napkin.
In the United Kingdom and Canada both terms, serviette and napkin,
are used. In Australia, 'serviette' generally refers to the paper
variety and napkin refers to the cloth variety.
There is no relation to taking a nap or snooze during the day,
that 'nap' comes from the Old English word 'hnappian', meaning “to
doze or sleep lightly.”