Clogg Family History

Apparently from Middle English clog(ge) ‘log wooden block’ also ‘wooden-soled shoe clog’. It may have been metaphorical for someone thought to be stupid (a blockhead) or metonymic for someone who habitually wore clogs or who made them as did Matthew Clogmaker 1367 in Colchester Court Rolls (his name contains the earliest known evidence of the word) and perhaps also Johannes Cloggare 1379 in Poll Tax (North Walsham Norfolk) and Willelmus Cloggere 1379 in Poll Tax (Norwich Norfolk).

There is no evidence yet of this occupation in SW England where the surname is chiefly found in post-medieval times. In SW England, perhaps alternatively a variant of Cloke (2) in which the alternative Middle English forms cloke, cloche, and clokke came to be pronounced with a voiced second consonant /g/ or /ʤ/ and spelled clog(ge) or cloge.

Interchangeability of Clogg and Cloke in early 17th-century SE Cornwall (especially Kilkhampton parish) is noted by Deacon Surnames of Cornwall pp. 37-8.