Clegg
A northern English surname most often linked to a place name, though some early writers also explained it as referring to a cliff or rocky slope.
The #4,414 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,377 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually treated as locational, from a place called Clegg in Lancashire, especially around Rochdale. Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a topographic word meaning a steep rock or cliff, which may lie behind the place name itself. Another older explanation linked it to Old Norse forms such as hleggi or kleggi, but these etymologies were not unanimous and were often speculative.
History
Early records in northern England include forms such as de Clegg in the 13th century. The name is strongly associated with Lancashire and nearby areas, and it later spread more widely within Britain and to the Isle of Man. Manx records show several spellings, including Clegg, alongside the better-known Clague family of forms.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A few 19th-century surname writers thought Clegg might ultimately mean something like a rocky height or cliff, so the surname may have started as a place-name describing the landscape itself.
From the historical record
“Somerset, and Worcester. CLEGG. "O. Norse, hleggi, a compact mass. There was a Northman with this surname in the Landuamabok." Fergu- son. CLEGGETT. Perhaps Cleygate, a manor in Surrey. CLEGHORN. A place in co. Lanark. CLELAND. The family were " of that Ilk," in CO. Lanark, temp. Alexander III.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom