Bage One-Name Study

(Click on picture to enlarge) BAGE surname distribution map for England & Wales 1881. Based upon 1881 census data.

Bage
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Bage One-Name Study
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Links
Contact Details

About the Bage One-Name Study

I first began my research into the BAGE name in the early 1990's when I began researching my own family tree which originated from the Middlesbrough area of the UK. I managed to trace my own tree back to the early 1700's at which point i hit a brick wall. So, i started collecting other information on all Bage's in the hope to break down my brick wall. Hence the BAGE one name study was born.

Origin of the surname

There a several trains of thought for the origin of BAGE. One thought is that BAGE was a Scandinavian personal name(1). BAGE is also Norman French for the word Badge, which in turn also relates to the Middle English word Bagge(2). BAGE is also the Danish word for bake(3). All of this points to the likelihood of the name originating in Scandinavia and making its way to England, probably via France .

Sources:

1. A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames by Charles Wareing Bardsley M.A., published, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1967 – page 73.

2. Answers.Com – Badge, URL: http://www.answers.com/topic/badge. Date accessed: 02 September 2005

3. Die.Net – Online dictionary – Bake, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), URL: http://dict.die.net/bake/. Date accessed: 01 September 2005

Historical occurrences

The first known occurrence of the name BAGE occurred in Cambridgeshire and was for a William Bage in 1273. Further to this the “Historical gazetteer of London before the Great Fire” references a John Bage(4) (alias Parys) fl 1406 of 39 St Mary Le Bow. John was the servant of Robert Parys (Paris). John ‘s wife Maud fl 1426 is also mentioned. This is the first known instance of a married couple by the name Bage. The year 1539 saw the next recorded entry of the name in North Wiltshire. Robtus & Thomas(5) are both recorded as Byllmen in the muster rolls of the tything (town) of Chalston in North Wiltshire. Further entries for Bage appear in Somerset in 1574, and in Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Dorset and Lincolnshire in the 1600’s.

Sources:

4. Index of Persons - B', Historical gazetteer of London before the Great Fire:Cheapside; parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane (1987). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22622&strquery=BAGE. Date accessed: 01 September 2005.

5. Name index to North Wiltshire Musters, Transcript of North Wiltshire Muster roles from 30th anniversary of the reign of Henry VIII 1539 by Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart.URL:http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dutillieul/ZWiltsMuster/IndexWiltsMuster.html. Date accessed: 01 September 2005.

Frequency of the name

In an extract of an Office of National Statistics database for 2002, the name BAGE is ranked 8198, with only 766 instances.

Distribution of the name

Over time the majority of Bage’s appear to have moved Northwards and the 1800 and 1900’s see the largest concentration around Yorkshire, Co Durham and Northumberland, though several small pockets of the name exist elsewhere.

Links

My dedicated BAGE one name study website can be found at http://www.bage.org.uk.

The BAGE discussion forum can be found here.

BAGE family trees can be viewed here.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Keith Bage
60 Fitzgerald Close,
Ely,
Cambridgeshire
CB7 4QD
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.