Wigg

This interesting name has two possible origins. The first being a metonymic occupational name for a maker of wedge-shaped bread, from the Medieval English "Wigge" meaning "wedge-shaped". The name may also have been a nickname deriving from the Medieval English "wigge", itself coming from the Old English, pre 7th Century, "wicga" meaning a beetle. As a sobriquet (or personal name) the forms in the Domesday Book of 1086 are Wiga (Buckinghamshire), Wige (Yorkshire) and Wig (Bedfordshire). The surname is first recorded in the late twelve hundreds. Alternate spellings have included Wygge (1292) and Wigges (1586). The form Wigg appears in 1715. One, Charles Trinquand married a Mary Wigg in St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Wigge, which was dated 1275, in the Close Rolls of Kent, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.