Blodgett

Recorded in the spellings of Bladge, Blodg, the diminutives Blodget, Blodgett, and Bloggett, the patronymic Blodgetts, and possibly the locational Blodgenham, this is a very rare and unusual surname. It is almost certainly English but may derive from the Old Scandanavian word and rare personal name 'Blad' believed to translate as a leaf or possibly a sprig or young branch of a tree. The surname is widely, but but at the sametime rarely, recorded in the surviving post medieval church registers of England, and then apparently mainly in the Midlands. However it is possible that like many rare surnames, there may be a specific area where a "nest of recordings" exists that we have not found, and where the name is relatively popular. Certainly there is no place in the British Isles called by any of the surname spellings, the recording of Martha Blodgenham at Almondbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on December 18th 1586, being the only example found. Early examples of the surname recordings include: Edeneye Bloggett, at the village of Blofield in the county of Norfolk, on January 12th 1566, with Jean Bladge, the daughter of Thomas Bladge, being christened at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on November 10th 1749. Other recordings taken at random are those of Hannah Blodgett who married Matthew Wood at Holy Trinity church, Coventry, Warwickshire, on August 4th 1777, and John Blodgetts, whose daughter Elizabeth was christened at Womboun, Staffordshire, on August 16th 1835.