COGGINS
Coggins is a surname of English origin, beginning in the British Isles and maintained through centuries of population movement. Its earliest attestations appear in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, with subsequent records in parish registers proving its presence in London in 1616.
The principal derivation of Coggins stems from the medieval given name Coggin, itself a diminutive of Cogg, which is a pet form of the Old English name Cuthbert. The name Cuthbert conveys the idea of one who is famous, bright or brilliant, and hence Coggins may be interpreted as son of Coggin or descendant of Coggin.
Alternate etymological proposals suggest that the name could be a dialectal variant of the Welsh locational name Cogan, derived from a place called Cotgan in Llandaff near Cardiff; Cotgan itself comes from the Welsh word meaning bowl or depression. Another hypothesis holds that the name is the Anglicised form of the Gaelic patronymic MacCogadhain, from the Gaelic prefix mac meaning son of and the personal name Cuchogaidh meaning hound of war. The name is also recorded in Ireland as Cogan, Coogan and Goggin(s), and the earliest example is found in the Pipe Rolls of Glamorgan in 1185, where a William de Cogan appears. An entry for John de Cogan is noted in the Somerset Hundred Rolls of 1273.
A further origin theory associates the surname with the villages of Cogges or Egges in Oxfordshire, where the element Cog is traced to the Old English word coh, meaning mound, hill or ridge, and the suffix gins is linked to the Old English term kin for family. Thus, Coggins could be understood as family of mounds or family on the hill. In Scotland, the name evolved into Cogginsh, the h representing a historic pronunciation of the Gaelic bh sound; the surname can still be found there today.
Evidence of the surname in London includes a christening record on 3 July 1616 for Jane Coggins at St. Dunstan Stepney. The same year, Sara Coggin at age twenty embarked for Virginia aboard the vessel Assurance from London, illustrating early emigration. Earlier documentation in Ireland includes the 1171 entry for Milo de Cogan in the “Records of County Cork” during the reign of King Rory O’Conor.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many families bearing the surname migrated to the United States. They settled predominantly in the southern seaboard states, particularly Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. Within the United States, the surname remains most frequently found in North Carolina and South Carolina; in the former it ranks as the 588th most common surname with approximately 2 923 bearers, while in the latter it is the 669th most common with about 1 995 bearers. Tennessee records about 876 individuals, Alabama about 431, and Georgia about 444. The concentration of the name decreases towards the west and north of the country.
Common variants of the surname comprise Coghill, Cochill, Coghillin, Cogel, Cogwill, Cockill, Cockin, Cocking, Cockan, Coquillin, Cochin, Coquillan, Cocklain, Cockwell, Cockinge, Cochlin and the Scottish form Cogginsh. Other names historically linked include Cockett, Cockman and, in Ireland and Scotland, Cochrane, Coogan, Cogan, Coggan. The Germanic variants recorded are Koggen, Kogger, Kocken. The diverse derivatives reflect the surname’s adaptation across languages and regions.
Thus, the surname Coggins embodies a rich tapestry of linguistic and geographic history, maintaining a presence from medieval England through to contemporary stages in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Typical given names associated with the Coggins surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Alison
- Anne
- Deborah
- Elizabeth
- Janet
- Joanne
- Karen
- Laura
- Mary
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Sharon
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Coggins in...
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There are approximately 1,900 people named Coggins in the UK. That makes it roughly the 4,391st most common surname in Britain. Around 29 in a million people in Britain are named Coggins.
Surname type: From name of parent
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
