This is an English surname. Recorded in several forms including Algar, Augar, Auger, Agar, Elgar, and others, it is not occupational for a maker of agricultural tools as may be thought but a development of the popular personal name Alger or Algernon. It has an interesting and complicated origin, combining in a fused form several names of different origins. These include: Aethelgar, Aelfgar and Ealdgar, all sharing a common final element of "gar", a spear. The first two names occur in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Aelgar and Elgar whilst Alger and Algar are found in the register of the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and dated 1195. In English regions controlled by the Vikings the name may also stem from the Old Norse Alfgeirr, cognate with the Anglo-Saxon Aelfgar (as above). Early examples of the surname recordings include: Thomas Alger of Suffolk, in 1221; Walter Elgar also of Suffolk, in 1234; and Thomas Algor of Cambridgeshire, in 1260. A coat of arms asscoiated withethe name has the blazon of a gold shield charghed with a black eagle displayed, membered red. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Algar. This was dated 1221, in the Assize Court rolls of Worcestershire, during the reign of King Henry 111rd of England, 1216 - 1272. 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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