The Gudgeon Family

The Gudgeon family name enters my family tree in 1898 when Elizabeth Ellen Gudgeon married John James Hodcroft (b. 1870).

Gudgeon Surname - Origin

Surname: Gudgion

Recorded as Gudgeon, Gudgion, Gudgen and Gudgin, this is an English surname. However it is French in origin from the word goujon, the name of a fish considered easy to catch. As such the surname may have been a nickname for a fisherman, or for a credulous person.

In this case the word was introducued into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and first appears in records in the 13th century (see below). These recordings include Robert Gugiun in the Curia Regis rolls of 1221, whilst Henry Gojun is mentioned in the Subsidy Tax Rolls of Staffordshire in the same year.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Peter Guggun. This was dated 1206, in the Curia Regis rolls of Lancashire, during the reign of King John, 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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This Page Last Corrected and Updated 30/04/2009