LUGG
Lugg is an English family name that emerged in the British Isles and is recorded in England from at least the sixteenth century. The surname derives from the Old English word lugga, meaning “ear,” and is believed to have been a nickname for a person with prominent or distinctive ears. As with many early English surnames, it reflects a personal characteristic or physical attribute that distinguished a particular individual from his neighbours.
Variations of the name include Lug and Lugge, and related forms such as Luck, Look, Lock, Luke and Lucas. In Devonshire and Cornwall, where the name is chiefly found, it is thought to be connected to the medieval male given name Lucas. Lucas was a Latinised form of the Greek Loucas, meaning “man from Lucania” – a region of southern Italy whose name is derived from lucis, bright or shining. The popularity of St. Luke the Evangelist during the Middle Ages helped secure the use of the forename, and a number of early records cite individuals bearing the name Lucas or its variations in England between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.
Important documentary evidence for the Lugg surname dates from the mid‑sixteenth century. In 1546, Thomas, son of John Lugge, was christened in Barnstaple, Devonshire. In 1613, an infant named Franncys Lug was christened in St. Keverne, Cornwall. The earliest known marriage record for the family appears in 1549, when William Lugg married Alice Wattes in Branscombe, Devonshire, during the reign of King Edward V, the Boy King, 1547‑1553. These references confirm the surname’s continued use in the region during the early modern period.
The Lugg family of Gloucestershire was granted a coat of arms that includes a blue wavy bendlet on a silver bend or diagonal stripe, positioned between two narrow silver stripes. The bend is said to represent the shoulder strap worn by a warrior, a symbol that links the family to martial tradition and to the visual language of heraldry used by English gentry in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
While the surname is relatively uncommon in contemporary England, it remains part of the country’s rich tapestry of patronymic and descriptive family names. Its etymological roots in the Old English adjective for “ear” and its connections to the medieval given name Lucas illustrate the layered history of English onomastics.
Typical given names associated with the Lugg surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- James
- Kevin
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Diane
- Elizabeth
- Jennifer
- Julie
- Karen
- Kathleen
- Margaret
- Mary
- Pamela
- Patricia
- Sally
- Sarah
- Sian
- Susan
- Victoria
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 Lugg in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 1,204 people named Lugg in the UK. That makes it roughly the 6,418th most common surname in Britain. Around 18 in a million people in Britain are named Lugg.
Origin: Anglo-Saxon
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Lugg
- William Lugg - Actor and singer (1852 to 1939)
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.