Digges - Name

Recorded as Digg, Digges, the diminutives Dickel, Diggin, Diggon, Diggan, Diggle, the double diminutives Diggins, Digglin, Digglin, Diggin, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is a development of the ancient pre 7th century personal name Richard, meaning powerful-brave, from which we have Dick, Dickard,.Dicklin, Dickon, as well as Digg, Diglin, Digglin and possibly others. As to how all these forms developed is unclear, but given that in ancient times 'games' by way of board games or computers, were still many centuries ahead, it was left to human imagination to come up with alternative amusements. What is certain and proven is that the creation of nicknames was almost a sport in Medieval times as shown in the writings of Chaucer and later Shakespeare. In this case the surname is first recorded as early as the year 1219 when Agnes Dikel appears in the Assize Rolls of Yorkshire, whilst Walter Dikelin appaers in the Hundred Rolls of Landowners for the county of Norfolk in 1273, and William Dyg in the Subsidy Tax rolls of Sussex in 1296. Other examples taken from later surviving registers and charters include Francis Diggins of Suffolk in the Hearth Tax Rolls of that county in 1674, and Thomas Diglin, whose actual dates are not known, but who gave his name to Diglins Dove, a hamlet in Cambridgeshire, around thae same date.