RUDGE Family History

This interesting surname may be a topographical name from the West Midlands for someone who lived by a ridge, or it may be a locational name from Ridge in Gloucestershire and Shropshire (recorded as Rigge in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Rugge in the Pipe Rolls of 1188), deriving from the middle English "Rugge", old English pre 7th Century "hrycg" meaning "ridge". Secondly, it may be a diminutive of the medieval given name Roger, itself coming from the Germanic personal name composed of the elements "hrod" meaning "renown" plus "geri, gari" spear and was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Rog(i)er.