Ruggles

[nerdy_cat]

I was researching my family tree when I discovered that my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather were both named Ruggles! All I can find on this name is that it’s an English surname, which is funny because their middle names and surnames were also English surnames. Has anyone else encountered this name? Any thoughts on it?

Personally, I think it sounds like the kind of name you’d hear on a preschool-age kids show. My husband thinks it sounds like it would make a good wizard’s name in the [name_m]Harry[/name_m] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] world. Pretty sure my great-grandfather wasn’t fond of his unusual name since he named his only son [name_m]Robert[/name_m]. I doubt it will be going on any of my lists for future children, but it made me so happy to see such an unusual name in my family tree. All this time I thought my family was full of [name_m]Roberts[/name_m] and Thomases!

[Sunniva]

An interesting find indeed. I’ve not heard the name before (as either a first or surname) but it seems to have a long history - with a quick Google search I found this & this which are both rather interesting to read through and informative (I imagine though that perhaps you’ve already done such research and found this information, but for others who come across this thread who may be interested…). Ruggles might not go down too well these days, no, but if you really wanted to honor your unusually named ancestor, I’d think that Rudge (or [name_m]Ridge[/name_m]) could actually make for a fairly nice middle name.

[bskelton]

sounds like a dog’s name to me