This unusual name, with the modern varients Doige and Doidge, has two possible origins, the first being from the medieval personal name "Dogge" a pet form of "Roger", which in turn comes from the Anglo-Saxon name "Hrothgar", meaning "fame spear". The double "g" of "Dogge" would have been pronounced "dg(e)" and in the modern spelling there are a number of variations of this surname, ranging from Dodge, Doidge and Doige to Dodgin and Dodgson. The second possible origin is from a medieval nickname surname, from the Old English pre 7th century "docga" or "dogga", a dog. The name development has included "Alice Doegewyf" (Dodge's wife), 1379, Yorkshire and John Doegeman, (ibid). On September 2nd 1555, John Dodge married Agnes Goodwyn, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, London, and the marriage of Elyzabethe Dodge and Thomas Bruer took place on April 23rd 1566, at Christ Church, Greyfriars, Newgate, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Dogge, which was dated 1206, in the "Curia Rolls of Gloucestershire". during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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