How popular is the baby name Hodge in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Hodge.

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Popularity of the baby name Hodge


Posts that mention the name Hodge

Baby names with DG: Ledger, Bridger, Judge

hedgehog

Feeling nudged to choose a baby name that contains the letter-pair DG?

It’s an uncommon combination, but I’ve tracked down a few dozen options for you in this post!

Before we get to the names, though, let’s learn…

Where did -DGE come from in English?

French scribes, essentially.

In Old English, the “soft g” sound was rare, and it only occurred at the end of a word. When it did pop up, it was spelled with the digraph CG.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the ruling class of England spoke Anglo-Norman French. Over time, “the French-educated scribes [began] imposing traditional French spelling rules on English.”

The Normans had brought with them “soft g” words that utilized the letters G and I (which later evolved into J), but for native English words that contained the same sound, they decided to swap out CG for the trigraph DGE.

Some examples…

Old EnglishModern English
brycgbridge
ecgedge
hecghedge
hrycgridge
wecgwedge

Words derived from Anglo-Norman that happen to have the same ending include judge, pledge, and badge, and budge.

Now, on to the names!

Names with DG

Below are names that feature either DGE or the letter-pair DG (if it represents the same “soft G” sound). All of these names come from the SSA’s baby name data.

  • Adger
  • Adgie
  • Aldridge
  • Bridge
  • Bridger
  • Bridges
  • Bridget, Bridgett, Bridgette, Bridgete
  • Bridgetta
  • Bridgid
  • Bridgit, Bridgitt, Bridgitte
  • Cambridge
  • Coleridge
  • Condredge
  • Coolidge, Cooledge
  • Dandridge
  • Dodge
  • Dodger
  • Edge
  • Edgel
  • Edger
  • Edgerrin, Edgerin
  • Edwidge
  • Elbridge
  • Eldredge
  • Eldridge
  • Elridge
  • Etheridge
  • Ethridge
  • Gadge
  • Gidget, Gidgette
  • Hodge
  • Hodges
  • Judge
  • Knowledge
  • Ledgen
  • Ledgend
  • Ledger
  • Madge
  • Madgel
  • Madgie
  • Midge
  • Midgie
  • Milledge
  • Naledge
  • Padgett
  • Pledger
  • Redge
  • Redgie
  • Redginald
  • Ridge, Rydge
  • Ridger
  • Ridgely
  • Ridgeway
  • Ridgway
  • Rodger
  • Rodgerick
  • Rodgers
  • Rutledge
  • Sedgie
  • Sedgwick
  • Talmadge

Which DG name do you like most? Let me know in the comments!

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Igel by Mi chaela under CC BY 2.0.

Baby named for opera house, oil company, Samuel J. Tilden

John Hodge Opera House Centennial Gargling Oil Samuel J. Tilden Ten Brook was born in Olcott, New York, in the early 1870s.

His father initially named him “John Hodge” after family friend John Hodge of Lockport, New York. But at the christening in 1876, when the boy was four years old, Hodge himself suggested that they add the following middle names:

  • Opera House – Hodge owned the Lockport Opera House
  • Centennial – for the Philadelphia Centennial that year
  • Gargling Oil – Hodge was the proprietor of Merchant’s Gargling Oil Company
  • Samuel J. Tilden – Hodge was a “staunch supporter of Samuel J. Tilden and his presidential campaign”

The boy didn’t end up going by any of these names as an adult, though. He was known simply as “Buck.”

The Dutch surname Ten Brook, btw, means “near the marsh.”

Sources:

  • “Autograph Fans Irk Man of Many Names.” Montreal Gazette 22 Jan. 1938: 9.
  • “Miscellany, Mar. 22, 1948.” TIME Magazine 22 Mar. 1948.
  • “Ten Names, But Call Him ‘Buck’.” Ellensburg Daily Record 25 Jan. 1938: 2.