KELLOGG
Kellogg is a surname of English origin, first recorded in the region of the British Isles, specifically in the county of Essex, England. The initial appearance of the name can be traced back to the 12th century, with variants such as William Kelloc recorded in the 1177 Pipe Rolls of Essex. The surname has remained within the English-speaking world, gaining particular prominence in the United States following the migration of early settlers in the 17th century.
The etymology of Kellogg is complex, reflecting both personal and topographic origins. One derivation stems from the Old English personal name Ceol, meaning “ship”, combined with lac, meaning “play” or “sport”. This construction would have denoted a person associated with ships or a person of a playful character, and over time the personal name evolved into the hereditary surname Kellogg.
Another, occupational explanation links the name to the medieval English word kellen, meaning “to kill”, and the noun hog, meaning “pig”. Under this interpretation, Kellogg was originally an occupational surname for a pork butcher or a person who killed and prepared hogs for market. Early records such as John Ryche alias Kelhoge appear in the 1541 Fine Court Rolls of Essex, illustrating this variant spelling. The surname from this source is first known in the latter half of the 13th century, with alternate spellings including Kelehoog in 1369.
A further topographic origin relates the surname to a place called Kellogg, situated in Norfolk, England. The place name derives from two Old English elements: kelling, meaning “kick” or “cistern”, and hoh, translating to “ridge” or “spur of a hill”. Thus, the literal meaning of the place name is “the ridge of land where the cistern is”, and the surname Kellogg was adopted by individuals who lived near or came from this particular ridge. The earliest known spelling in this context is Geoffrey Kyllehog, recorded in the 1277 Fine Court Rolls of Essex during the reign of King Edward, who was contemporaneously known as “The Hammer of the Scots”.
The surname crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century, when Joseph Kellogg emigrated from Great Leighs, Essex to Connecticut in 1651. He and his descendants established a presence in the New World, with one of his great‑grandsons, William Kellogg (1830–1918), later serving as Governor of Louisiana. In the contemporary period, the name has gained widespread recognition in the United States largely as a result of the Kellogg brothers, who founded the Kellogg Company, a multinational food manufacturing corporation, in the late 19th century.
Today the surname exists in two principal orthographic forms: Kellogg and Kellog. Other historical spellings include Kelloc, Kellock, Kelloggs and Kelloug. These variations arose from differences in phonetic spelling, regional dialects and clerical record keeping. While share a common lineage, the presence of similar surnames such as Killock or Kellock does not necessarily indicate shared ancestry, as surnames have evolved and diversified over centuries, influenced by a multitude of social, linguistic and geographical factors.
Typical given names associated with the Kellogg surname
Male
- David
- Paul
- Wayne
Female
- Dawn
- Tania
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 Kellogg in...
Braille
⠅⠑⠇⠇⠕⠛⠛
Morse
-.-..-...-..-----.--.
Semaphore
There are approximately 55 people named Kellogg in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around one in a million people in Britain are named Kellogg.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Kellogg
- John Harvey Kellogg - American physician (1852 to 1943)
- Ryan Kellogg - Baseball player
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.