Gager

This very unusual and interesting name has three separate but related interpretations, deriving from the Old French and Middle English "cage", cage. The first of these means "one who made and/or sold small cages for animals or birds", from the Old French word "Cagier". The second meaning is also occupational, and applies to one who was employed as the "Keeper of the Cage". This was the large public cage where, during the Middle Ages, those guilty of various kinds of petty crime were imprisoned for short periods. The third meaning of the surname is topographical and denoted residence near to such a cage. In the modern idiom, the name can be found as "Caiger", "Gager", "Cage" and "Cadge". The marriage of Anton Cage and Dorothy Rudstone was recorded in London in April 1572. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Cager, which was dated 1319, in the "Essex Subsidy Rolls", during the reign of King Edward 11, known as "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327. 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.