Musgrove
An English locational surname meaning “someone from Musgrave,” with later forms influenced by places such as Charlton Musgrove.
The #5,237 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,358 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Musgrove is generally treated as a variant of Musgrave, a place-name surname. The place-name is usually explained as containing an Old Norse personal name, often given as Mysi or a similar form, plus Old Norse graf or Old English grāf, meaning a grove, copse, or small wood. In plain terms, the surname originally meant someone who lived at or came from a wooded place called Musgrave or a related local name.
History
The surname is recorded in English sources as a variant of Musgrave, and one source notes that Musgrove is the same name. It is especially associated with northern English place-names, but later evidence also points to Somerset, including Charlton Musgrove, which helped spread and reinforce the form. Historical writers also mention the Musgrove family as deriving from these place-name origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Charlton Musgrove in Somerset is explicitly named in historical sources as the place “from” which the surname form was taken.
From the historical record
“inson's Cumberland, i. 2G9. MUSGROVE. The same as Musgrave. MUSKETT. The male sparrow-hawk. Analogous to Kite, Hawk, Falcon, &c. jNIUSSELWHITE. a corruption of Musselthwaite. Local : see Thwaite. MUSSENDEN. ]\Iissenden, co. Buck- ingham, was anciently so written. 5'he family claim a Norman origin.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom