Uridge

Recorded as Uridge and Urridge, this is an English surname. It may be locational either from a now "lost" medieval village, or from some surviving place whose spelling is similar to the surname. If so we we have not been able to identify any such place in any known gazetter of the past three centuries. It may also have been topographical, and if so it would have described somebody who lived "over the ridge". In all cases the name spelling would suggest an origin from the pre 7th century Olde English words "ofer" meaning over, and "rygg", a ridge of a hill. This would suggest that "Over-rygg" was a farm or settlement away from a main farm or settlement, as these were often spaced two to three miles apart. Some five thousand surnames of the British Isles are estimated to originate from now "lost" villages, of which the only reminder of their existence in the late 20th century, is the surviving surname, often in a myriad of spellings. In this case the name is well recorded in the diocese of Greater London from at least the time of William and Mary (1694 - 1702). These recordings include such examples as Elizabeth Uridge who married John Medlicot at St James church, Dukes Place, Westminster, on December 1st 1694, Mary Urridge, who married William Worringer at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on January 6th 1719, and William Uridge, and his wife Lucy, who were witnesses at the famous church of St Clement Danes, in the city of London, on February 6th 1829.