Higgs
A surname that most likely began as a nickname or pet form of Richard, through the short form Hick or Higg.
The #3,458 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,880 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Higgs is generally explained as an English surname formed from the medieval pet name Higg or Hick, short forms of Richard. The ending -s usually means "son of" or "belonging to," so the name likely meant "Higg’s son" or was otherwise linked to a family of someone called Higg/Hick. Older surname writers also grouped Higgs with a broader cluster of names built from Richard, such as Hicks, Hickson, Higgins, and Higginson.
History
The name is found in English records alongside many related forms from the same nickname family. It became established as a hereditary surname in England and later spread to other English-speaking countries, including the United States. Because several similar surnames overlap in origin, historical spellings can be hard to separate cleanly.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname scholars often treated Higgs as part of a whole "Hick" family of names, alongside Hicks, Higgin, and Higginson.
From the historical record
“surnames. Hick, as stated above, at first the favourite, gave us Hicks, Hick- son, and the tazified H^g, Higgs, Higson, and the dim. Higgin, Hi^ins, H^inson, &c. From Dick we get Dicks, Dickson, Dixon, Dix, Dickinson, &c. This reference to Hick and Dick brings us to a very interesting point as regards the antiquity…”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances