This unusual surname has several variant spellings including Bugbee, and Bugby and is a dialectual variant of the locational (place) name 'Buckby' in Northamptonshire. As a place name it is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Buchebi' and by the 13th century 'Buckeby'. The meaning is 'Bucca's by' i.e. a Scandinavian personal name (from Norse settlement in the area) and 'by', a village or a homestead. Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor and to the local inhabitants, and especially to those who left their original homes and went to live or work in another town or village. One Thomas Bugbee was christened on the 28th October 1792, in Raunds, Northamptonshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Buckeby. which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls, Buckinghamshire. during the reign of King Edward 1 known as 'The Hammer of the Scots' 1272-1307. 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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