<< According to Jenkins and Burkhead (Fishes of VA) the name was apparently
derived from the French Canadian word, Crapet, the etymology of which is
unclear >>
It seems as if the French people of Canada who dealt with various Native
American tribes could've gotten that term or something similar to it from the
tribesmen of the regions the crappies were present in. This could've been a
corruption of the Native American fish species name, or perhaps (less likely
to me) it could be an obscure Old french term which managed to persist even
though its original meaning was lost. I think that more than likely it was a
Native American term which might've been too hard for the French to
pronounce, since the Native American dialect in question might've contained
sounds which were not present in the French language. Thus they would've
tried to approximate the term and arrived at the term "crapet". This is just
a guess on my part, but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
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