Pugh
A Welsh surname meaning “son of Hugh,” formed from ap Hugh.
The #879 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,805 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pugh is the Welsh patronymic ap Hugh, meaning “son of Hugh.” In Welsh naming practice, ap (“son of”) often fused with the father’s name, and Hugh is the English form of the older Germanic name Hugo, “mind” or “spirit.” So the surname is essentially a contracted form of “son of Hugh.”
History
19th-century surname writers consistently explain Pugh as a Welsh hereditary surname from ap Hugh. It is one of the familiar Welsh names that emerged when patronymics hardened into fixed family surnames, especially from the late medieval period onward. Related forms such as Hughes and Pew are noted in older sources as parallel developments from the same naming pattern.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books often group Pugh with Fitzhugh and Mackay as different language forms of the same basic idea: “son of Hugh.”
From the historical record
“structure ; with the Fr. dim. suff. -et\ PUGH "I for the Welsh Ap-Hugh = Son of PUGHEJ Hugh: V. Hugh. PULBROOK (Eng.) Dweller at the Pooi^ Brook [O.E. pdl + hr6c\ PULESTON (Eng.) There is no trace of a local name Puleston, which is prob. rather a contracted form of the Herefordshire place-name Puddlestone than a…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)