User:SemperBlotto/Knaggs

Knaggs, variously spelt Knag(g)(e)(s) or Nag(g)(e)(s), is a fairly rare English surname.
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Origin
Several dictionaries of surnames list Knaggs as a North English topographic name for someone who lived by a knagg (a stunted dead branch, or a jagged crag). However, it seems to have originated in Scandinavia where, today in both Sweden and Norway there are people named Knag, Knagg or Knagge. The name is not present in the Domesday Book, and the earliest documented occurrence is that of Henry Knag, a Yorkshire Templar.

Distribution
Today, in the British Isles, the surname Knaggs is most common in Yorkshire, in a broad swathe from Bridlington, through Whitby, to Guisborough. There are pockets in the main Yorkshire industrial and commercial cities such as Hull, Leeds, and Middlesbrough, and isolated families throughout the rest of the United Kingdom. In 2002, in England and Wales there were 1,286 people named Knaggs, 172 named Knagg and 54 named Naggs. People with the Knaggs surname have settled in foreign parts since the 18th century, and are now to be found in The United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad, and even Haiti and Singapore.

The surname Knagg occurs most often in the industrial cities of Lancashire; most of these descend from a family that originated in Westmorland.

The surname Naggs occurs most in Northumberland and County Durham, and in those places where the name was so rare that nobody knew about the silent “K”.

People with the surname Knaggs

 * Thomas Knaggs (1661–1724), preacher and publisher of sermons
 * Whitmore Knaggs (1763–1827), Indian fighter, linguist and spy
 * Sir Samuel William Knaggs (1856–1924), civil servant (West Indies)
 * Henry Valentine Knaggs (1859–1954), physician and author
 * Skelton Knaggs (1911–1955), stage actor and horror movie actor
 * Charlie Knaggs, Colonel in the Irish Guards
 * James Knaggs, territorial commander, Australian Salvation Army