So somebody found their way to this blog by googling “The history of the last name Waugh“. Unfortunately, I know precious little about the family history, although I believe Grandma and Shushu have looked into our genealogy. But I was curious, and so opened up the google results in question and started sifting through, then changed the search terms to try and cut out all that North American rubbish and get straight to the point, and so far the most interesting thing I find is this. Yeah, apparently there’s a Waugh family crest.
Now, apart from sharing the same surname, and apart from those ancient crested Waughs coming from roughly the right part of the world, I have no idea just how much of a connection between me and them there may be. Same goes for the English writers and Aussie cricketers surnamed Waugh. Still, it’s not the most common name in the world, so maybe, just maybe….
I assume you know that Waugh is from Old English wealh which originally meant “foreigner” and then came to mean “Briton; Welshman”. The plural, wealas is the source of the name Wales. (Well, the form in the Anglian dialect will be.)
Yeah, I’d come across that years ago. Is there not also a connection to “Walloon”?
Yes. Same source. Both from Proto-Germanic *walx-. Ironically, it apparently comes from Volcae, the name of a Celtic tribe.
From a specific Celtic tribe to foreigner, and then splitting, one branch becoming the Frogs of the southern half of Belgium, the other referring to a completely new set of Celts, and then turning into a bunch of surnames for some of those Celts, and a country name for others. Language is fun.
John, I’m truly impressed. Would you be able to tell me what the origins of “Schiavenza” (my surname) are?
I can rest assured though that any Schiavenza who happens upon my blog will be a relative.