Boggs
Usually a locational surname meaning “someone from the bog” or “marshy ground,” though in some cases it may have been formed as a patronymic from Bogg.
The #1,262 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,074 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is generally taken from Middle English bogge or bog, meaning a bog, marsh, or wet ground. In that sense, Boggs would originally have described someone who lived by, or came from, such a place. Some 19th-century writers also treated it as a genitive form of Bogg, effectively meaning “Bogg’s son,” so a patronymic explanation is possible in some families.
History
The surname is found in medieval English records in forms such as atte Bogge, showing early use as a place-based byname. Later reference works often grouped Boggs with other short English surnames formed from topography or from possessive family names. The spelling has remained fairly stable, though related forms include Bogg, Boggie, Bogman, and Bogue.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some early surname scholars explicitly glossed Boggs as “at the bog,” a very literal medieval nickname for someone who lived near marshland.
From the historical record
“Bogg, BoggB.— Local, ' at the b(^,' from residence thereby. Boggs is genitive, as in other monosyllabic local names, such as Styles. Brooks, Sykes, Holmes, &c. Boggs therefore-BoKg's, i.e. Bogtr's son ; el. Jones, Williams, Perking, &c.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances