Sage

Recorded as Sage, Sagg, and patronymics Saggs, Sagerson, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It was a nickname for a wise person, possibly a teacher or holy man, or given the robust Chaucerian humour of those far off times, the absolute reverse!. It derives from the Old French word "sage", meaning learned or sensible, and ultimately from the Roman (Latin) "sapere", meaning to taste or discern. Nicknames form one of the largest groups within surname listing, and it is said that a quarter of all names started out that way. In this case perhaps not surprisingly it is an early recording and examples include Ralph Sage in the calendar of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, in 1190, whilst Petronilla la Sage is noted in the tax rolls known as the Feet of Fines of Staffordshire in 1206. Laster examples include Elizabeth Sage who married George Warrin at St. Matthew's, Friday Street, city of London, in 1564, Elizabeth Saggs, who was christened at St Giles Cripplegate on October 3rd 1666, just after the Great Fire of London, and John Sagerson, a christening witness at St Johns Smith Square, Westminster, on September 30th 1750. A coat of arms associated with the name has the blazon of per pale erminois and green, three fleur-de-lis counterchanged. The crest is a stag's head erased and the Motto, Non Sibi", translates as, "Not for himself". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert le Sage. This was dated 1185, in the Pipe Rolls of Shropshire, during the reign of King Henry 11nd, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.