Ragge

This unusual surname is derived from an Old Danish personal name "Wraghi", Anglicized first as Wrag and later as Ragg. The name Ragg may also be a pet form of Reginald which comes from the old English pre 7th Century "regen" meaning power and "weald" a force. In 1192, the forename Wrag appears in the Pipe Rolls of Northumberland, the surname also first appears in that year, (see below). One, John Wrag appears in the Assize Court Rolls of Warwickshire (witness) in 1221. Between 1273, and 1379, the name is spelt Ragge in the Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire "Peter, William and Johannes Ragge". On October 24th 1571, John Ragg son of Gyles Ragg was christened in St. Botolph's without Algate and on March 20th 1585, Gartrith, daughter of George Ragg, was christened there. In the modern idiom the name is found as Ragg, Wragg, Wragge and Wraggs. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Wraggi, which was dated 1192, in the Pipe Rolls of Worcestershire, during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.