This interesting surname with variant spellings Segrave, Seagrove, Seagrief, Sygrave, Sygrove, etc., is a locational name from a place called Seagrave in Leicestershire, deriving from the old English pre 7th Century "(ge)set" meaning "fold, pen" or "seath", "pit or pool" plus "graf" meaning "grove" or "groef" "ditch". The placename is recorded as Satgrave and Setgrave in the Domesday Book of 1086. The surname dates back to the late 12th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Gilbert de Segrave (1273), "the Hundred Rolls of Pambridgeshire" and Nicholas de Segrave "the Hundred Rolls of Huntingdonshire". Robert Seigrove was christened in 1611 in Stepney, Ann Segrove married Nathan Michell on August 8th 1686 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and William Sygrove married Ester Laman on April 2nd 1773 in Finchley. Elizabeth Sygrove was christened at St. Pancras, Old Church, London in 1840. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de Segraua, which was dated 1180, "The Pipe Rolls of Leicestershire", during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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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