Jeff Knaggs - Genealogy

The KNAGGS surname

The Dictionary of Surnames gives Knaggs as a North English topographic name for someone who lived by a knagg (a stunted dead branch or a jagged crag).

The Dictionary of English Surnames lists . . .

• Henry Knag - 1185 a Yorkshire Templar
• Richard Knag - 1442
• John Knagges - 1598 a Freeman of the City of York

It gives Knag as Old Swedish, and Knagges as Old Danish.
In Sweden, there are 19 people named Knagg listed in the phone book.
In Norway, there are 78 people called Knagg, but in Denmark there are no instances of any variant.

Today, in England, the surname Knaggs is most common in Yorkshire, in a broad swathe from Scarborough, through Whitby to Guisborough. The surname Knagg occurs most often in Lancashire and Cumbria (I'm not sure if it is really a different name). I have so far traced my branch back to Lythe near Whitby in the North Riding of Yorkshire (where a 1638 baptism is my earliest date).

To show how relatively rare the surname is, here are some figures (from the Office of National Statistics) showing the number of people with a given surname in England and Wales in September 2002.

My Pedigree

Surnames

Knaggs Time Line