Wiggett

Recorded in several spellings including Wigget, Wiggett, Wicket, Wickett, and Wicketts, this is surname of olde English pre 7th century origins. As a surname it is pre-medieval and a diminutive of the ancient personal names "Wigg", from wicga meaning beetle or insect, and translates as "Little Wigg" or possibly son of Wigg. Wigg itself is of Olde English pre 7th century origins when it was also spelt Wigot, Wiggar" or possibly Wicga, all have the same apparent meaning. Some fifteen percent of all English surnames come from a nickname, however it must not be supposed that the modern meaning today, is necessarily literally the same as that of fifteen hundred years ago. What we do know here that this is one of the earliest surnames ever recorded, with John Wiget appearing in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Worcestershire as early as the year 1180, and Walter Wicket in the Subsidy Rolls of the county of Suffolk on 1284. A coat of arms for the name Wiggett, granted in 1755 to William Wiggett Esq of Geist, in Norfolk, has the blazon of a gold field, with a grey dove on black wavy border in chief, believed to symbolize a bearer of good tidings in battle. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.