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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from Coggeshall in Essex, named from an Old English personal name Cogg + halh ‘nook’.
  • This name was taken to America in 1632 by John Coggeshall, who became first governor of RI, and in 1635 by John Cogswell. In 1887 a descendant, Daniel Cogswell, founded Cogswell College, San Francisco.

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