The Hogg Surname Centre

 
 
I have heard a number of different origins for this name.   My father always said that a hogg is a yearling sheep.  I just looked it up in the Oxford dictionary where it says under hog, "(dial.) young sheep before first shearing (also hogg)"

Below you will find information that people have sent in regarding the origins of our name.

Monica


The origin of the family was from one of the North Men or Vikings of Norway who on a foray to Scotland married a lady of Fauldshop and settled in the Scottish lowland near the village of Selkirk.

The original name was Haug. How the name changed to Hogg was because of a confused accent as the broad speech of the Scots emphasized the end of the name as though two ‘gg’s were intended.

(James) Hogg the poet whose ancestors had lived for 400 years in the Border and Ettrick districts corroborates his North Man decent in the poem “Mountain Bard” where the Fray of Elibaut was one of the chief heroes and the name of The Laird of Fauldshop and in the poem “Pilgrims of the Sea” where he corroborates the great ancestor of the family Haug of Norway.

The later descendants of the family migrated to Canada – Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, also Ontario, also to Binghamton in New York State where on the 25th of January 1872 about 150 relations and direct family celebrated a family reunion at the residence of Mr. Robert Hogg. We are descended from the Prince Edward Island branch where my great great grandfather, John, migrated to districts known as Kelvin and Wilmot near the town of Kensington (correction: the first Hogg in this family line to immigrate to PEI from Dumfrieshire, Scotland was Edward Hogg, grandpa’s great grandfather by adoption (1775-1843). His wife’s name was Sarah Davidson).

The greater part of the family is still there with the family names, Robert, John and William predominant. The father of the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg (1770 – 1835), was named Robert (1729 – 1802). My father’s name was William and there were four Johns in the district of which I was the younger. My eldest son in Cleveland (Ohio) is named John Donald; my youngest son Robert and also my grandson is Robert.

The city of Pittsburg is built around ‘Hoggs Pond’ showing that the family roots have been settled in America for generations. My Father died in January 1915 and Mother in 1916.

(Written on a small note pad by John McLaughlin Hogg about 1963 on the request by his grandson, Robert Bentley Hogg) (added Aug. 6, 2013)

 


'This name is usually explained as a nickname derived from the name of the animal. "This agrees", says the late Professor Skeat, "with the fact that Hogg is a common surname to this day; and with the still more important fact that it was thus used as a surname even in the eleventh century." ... ' The spelling Hoga, first recorded in 1024, certainly points to Old English hoga,  'careful', 'prudent' as origin of the name at least in one instance.'    (from Blacks Surnames of Scotland)
   (thanks to Anne Burgess)


Hogg - possibly a modern form of the ancient Irish name "MacanBhainbh"  http://www.familychronicle.com/namesfl.htm


Hogg is an English and Scottish occupational name for the swineherd, from Middle English hog = pig. Occasionally, when of Scottish or Irish origin, it is a translation of the Gaelic Mac an Bhanbh , which means "son of the hog," but I don't know exactly what that means... http://clanhuston.com/name/surnames.htm


Many other family names, especially some of the English ones, are not what they seem to be.
For example, the surname HOGG (also spelled HOGGE and HOGGS) means a "descendant of
Hodge." Hodge was a nickname for Roger. It also referred to a dweller near a portion of wood
marked off for a clearing, or men of this name might have acquired it because they dwelled at
the sign of the hog (hogue). It also was an unkind nickname for a self-indulgent, gluttonous
person.    Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gormleym/index.htm


The surname was recorded in Durham where they were located from ancient times. some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D
http://www.camelotintl.com/bin/cgi/names?name=hogg&wild=y



The Hoag's, Hoge's, Hogg's and Their Name

The names of Hoag, Hoge, or Hogg is given several different derivations by various authorities, some saying that it was given to its first barer because of some characteristic which resembled that of a hog, others that it was first taken by one who lived near a place (possibly and Inn) called by that name and still others that it was derived from Hodge, a nickname for Roger,  Of these various theories the last is the most generally accepted.  The name is found on ancient records in the various forms of Hodge, Hogge, Hog, Hoghe, Hogh, Hooge, Hoogg, Hogue, Hoog, Hogg, Hoge, and Hoag, of which the last three are the forms most generally accepted in America today.

    Families of this name were to be found at early dates in the English countries of Durham, Chester, Oxford, Kent, York, Somerset, and London, as well as in numerous parts of Scotland and in Wales, and were for the most part, of the landed gentry and yeomanry of Great Britain.

    Among the earliest records of the family in Great Britain were those of Alice le Hog of Oxfordshire in 1273, Philip le Hog of Kent County about the same time, Peter Hog of Yorkshire at a slightly later time, Jane Hogg of London in the latter seventeenth century, John Hogg of Durhamshire in the latter seventeenth century (father by his wife Isabel of Thomas and John, of whom the first was the father of john, Thomas, and several daughters), and William Hogg of Gloucestershire in the early eighteenth century, who married Betty Mitchell and was the father of Elizabeth, Thomas, and possibly others.

    It is not definitely known from which of the many illustrious lines of the family in England the first emigrants of the name to America were descended but it is generally believed that all of the families of the name were of common ancestry at a remote period.

    Probably the first of the name in America was Richard Hogg, who came from England to Boston about 1636 and was the father by his wife Joan of Joseph, Mary (died young), John and another Mary.

    About 1650 one john Hoag or Hoge, who is said to have come with his parents from Wales, made his home at Newbury, Mass. His father is believed to have returned to Great Britain, leaving his young son in America.  John was married in 1659 to Miss Ebenezer Emery, by whom he had issue of John, Joseph, Jonathan, Hannah, Judith, and Benjamin, of whom the first is said to have founded the Connecticut family, the second is said to have been the progenitor of at least one of the New York branches of the family and Jonathan is believed to have been the ancestor of the New Hampshire line.

    In 1682 William Hoge is said to have emigrated from Scotland to New York, whence he soon removed to Perth Amboy, NJ, then to Pennsylvania, and finally to the Valley of Virginia.  He is said to have married Barbara Hume and to have left issue by her of, among others, a son named John, who made his home in Lancaster County, PA.  He had numerous issue by his wife Gwenthleen Bowen Davis, whom he married in 1722.  This issue included four sons, John, Jonathan, David and Benjamin.

    Others of the name who emigrated to America in the seventeenth century but left few records of themselves and their families, were John Hagg of Massachusetts in 1639; Thomas Hogg and several others of New Haven, CT, about 1646; William Hogg of Northumberland Co. VA in 16 50; Andrew Hogg of Virginia in 1653; and Thomas Hogg of Northhampton Co. VA in 1655.

    In the following century numerous other records of the family were to be found, among which were those of john and the Reverend William Hoge of Opecquon, VA, in 1736, of whom it is thought probable that the second was the same William Hoge who married Barbara Hume; Robert Hogg, son of James Hogg of Ireland, who emigrated about 1753 to New Boston, NH, with his wife Margaret Gregg, by whom he is said to have had thirteen children, among whom were Mary, James, Robert, William, Nancy, Sarah, John, Samuel, Betsy, and Abner; Jonathan Hoag of Beekman, NY, before 1777, who had issue by his wife a Miss Doughty of a son named Thomas; and Elisha Hoag of Easton, NY, in the later eighteenth century, who was probably born here although the name of his father is not found.

    The descendants of these and possibly of other branches of the family in America have spread to practically every State of the Union and have aided in much of the growth of the country as there ancestors aided in the founding of the nation.

    Among those of the family who fought as officers in the War of the Revolution were Lt. John Hoge of PA, Captain Samuel Hogg of VA, and Major Thomas Hogg of NC.  There were also numerous others of the name in the ranks of various other New England and Southern colonies.

    Two of the many member of the family who have distinguished themselves in various parts of the world were James Hogg, noted Scottish poet, who was born in 1770 and died in 1835, and Moses Drury Hoge of VA, American Presbyterian clergyman  born in 1819 and died in 1899.

    One of the most ancient and frequently recurrent of the several coats-of-arms of the Scotch and English family of Hogg is described as follows:
        Arms -- "Argent, three boars' heads couped (sometimes erased) sable."
        Crest -- "An oaktree fructed proper."
        (Arms taken from Burke's "General Armory", 1884)

The above data has been compiled chiefly from the following sources:

Bardaley -- "English and Welsh Surnames". 1901
Burke -- "Landed Gentry" 1852
Fenwick and Metcalfe -- "Visitation of Gloucester", 1884
Savage -- "Genealogical Dictionary of New England" 1862
Cogswell -- "History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, NH", 1878,          "History of the New Boston", 1864.
Little -- "History of Weare, NH", 1888.
Egle -- "Pennsylvania Genealogies", 1898
Foote -- "Sketches of Virginia", 1855
Hughes -- "American Ancestry", Vols. 1 and 2, 1887
Heitman -- "Officers of the Continental Army" 1924, "The Americana" 1932
Burke -- "General Armory", 1884

(thanks to Joanne Shukis, who found this in her grandmother's papers)
 


Scottish archives record that Solamon and his daughter Emma gave land to the
monks from France to build their abbey at Kelso in Roxburghshire..Their
suname was recorded as Da Hoga,possibly from the Nordic for wise,prudent and
careful.In the !3th century it was recorded that Turkil Hoga and his wife and
children were sold as serfs to the monks of Coldingham abbey and later John
Hogg lade siege to the fort at Berwick on Tweed.

thanks to Wilma Hogg


Hogge was from old Norse, mean falconer. The Viking's King special hunters.

thanks to Kathy Barnes


I have created a new page about the origins of Hogg according to James Hogg, "The Ettrick Shepherd" This page also contains information about Lucky Hogg, the witch.
Click here.

thanks to Ian Bartlett


Referring to the origin of the name Hogg.  I have a copy of a letter from a Ralph H. Hogg, dated Visalia, Ca. August 8, 1977 to my brother Paul Hogg in Poplar Bluff, Mo.   He wrote:

"The name is associated with livestock, alright but not in the sence that you mention.  The name is of Danish extraction and the original spelling was Hog(with a slash through the o) which means hawk in Danish.  They were supposed to be keepers and trainers of hunting falcons.  You may recall the scene in the movie The Vikings where Tony Curtis released a falcon that scratched the eyes out of Kirk Douglas.  The Danish alphabet has 34 characters and the character fo o (with a slash through it) does not incur in the English alphabet.  This is made all the more confusing because the Coat of Arms has on it three boars heads, but these heads were ancient symbols of courage and they had nothing to do with the name. In fact, the boars head occurs on several Scottish coats of arms."

He adds. "The Hoggs came from Denmark about 1240 and settled along the Moray Firth in Scotland.  Their Manor House is still standing near Swinton, Berwickshire, Scotland and there is still a Hogg Restaurant in the Tivell Gardens in Copenhagen.".

Thanks to Med Hogg, medhogg@cs.com


The origin of the name Hogg(e), Hoage, Haga is Dutch. The name identifies the dyke area of the Dutch coastland. Hence, Peter de Hage, Peter of the Dutch dyke region. Since the Dutch coastland is but a few miles from the English coast, the name de Hogg came by way of the sea. The name Hogg, Hoge, Hoage is one of the most common family names in Amsterdam. One of the largest Dutch shipping companies is de Hoage. In the Germanic languages there are no silent vowels so the "e" is pronounced. The linguistic similarity between the English name for livestock and the name of Hoge, Hogg, Hogge, etc is but coincidence. Much as the Vietnamese family name of "Van" does not originate from General Motors Light Truck Division.

Thanks to PEG


Just wondering if you were aware of the huguenot connection to the Hoggs , according to the encylopedia of British names that is were we originated from Hugoland in France, protestants who were massacred and bannished from their rich farmlands and then settled all over protestant europe.

thanks to Mrs James Hogg



 

 To submit  information for this page please send an e-mail to hoggs@monicahogg.com

 

| Home | Archives | Researchers | Links |

    | Families | Famous Hoggs | Images | Immigrants | Placenames | Variations |

     

MonicaWorks  Web Design