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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Scottish and northern Irish : nickname for a person of frightening appearance, from older Scots bogill ‘hobgoblin’, ‘bogy’ (of uncertain origin, possibly Gaelic).
  • South German (Bögle) : metonymic occupational name for a bowman or bow maker, from a diminutive of Middle High German boge ‘bow’ (see Bogel), or from the pet form of a Germanic personal name formed with an element akin to Old High German bogo ‘bow’.

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