Snuggs

This very unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname for someone who lived on a projecting piece of land. The modern surnames Snugg and Snuggs are variant forms of the original name from this source, Snook(s), and both derive from the Old English pre 7th Century term 'snoc', in Middle English 'snoke', a pointed, projecting piece of land. In some cases the surname may derive from a medieval nickname for someone with a long nose, and there is also some evidence that there was an Old English personal name 'Snoc', meaning 'snake', as in the placename 'Snorscomb' in Northants, which means 'Snoce's valley'. The plural forms of the surname, Snuggs and Snooks, are either genitive, as in 'of the snook', or patronymic, as in 'son of Snugg'. One John Snuggs married Mary Harwood at St. Katherine's by the Tower, London, on September 28th 1688. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Eduuardus Snoch, which was dated 1086, The Domesday Book, Kent, during the reign of King William 1, 'The Conqueror', 1066 - 1087. 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.