Bridges
Usually a topographic surname for someone who lived by a bridge, sometimes linked to places named Bridge or Bridges.
The #635 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,751 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bridges is generally understood as a topographic surname from Middle English bridge, meaning “bridge.” The final -s is commonly explained as a genitival or descriptive ending, so the name can mean “of the bridge” or “at the bridge,” rather than simply the plural of Bridge. Some historical writers also allowed for occasional place-name influence from settlements called Bridge or, less likely, from Bruges in Flanders, but the main English explanation is clearly local in origin.
History
Bardsley treated Bridges as a variant of Bridge and argued that the -s ending is not a plural but a surname-forming ending like those in Williams or Jones. The name is found in English records from the medieval and early modern periods and later became established as a common English surname. In some cases it may also have been influenced by residence near important crossings or by a place-name source.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers noted that bridges were often seen as charitable or even pious structures, since maintaining them was a public good.
From the historical record
“nation ER. BRIDGES. See Bridge. BRIDGETT. See Female Christian Names. BRIDGEWATER. A town in Somerset. BRIDGINIAN. From the remotest anti- quity, the building of bridges was considered a pious and charitalile deed, and hence the erection and custody of them Avas confided”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom