(names, names, names)
‘Philip’
and ‘Tagg’
(names, names, names)
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Tagg
— English family name,
probably of North German origin. Since it is an English name, it is pronounced
exactly like the English word tag [tæg]. It is written with
two Gs to distinguish it from the word tag. Though less common
than Smith or Jones, Tagg is not an unusual English surname:
there are tens of thousands of
us.
Many English Taggs seem to hail from the southern part of Lincolnshire (check HERE or HERE) previously known as Holland (flat as a pancake and a lot of it under sea level).
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The earliest Tagg I've found so far is Juliana, a potter from Toynton (probably Toynton All Saints, near Spilsby in central Lincolnshire).
“In 1364 Juliana Tagg took two crofts from the lord, Pottercroft and Wellcroft, for a term of years, during which time 'neither the lord nor his heirs shall disturb the said Juliana from digging and selling clay in the said croft pro ollis faciendis to whomsoever she pleases'.”
From Documentary Evidence and the Medieval Pottery Industry, by H. E. Jean Le Patourel, p. 114.
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Taggs seem to have abounded in the area between Spalding and the Norfolk border. For example, in the mid nineteenth century Abraham Tagg married Cassandra Hunter, Benjamin Tagg married Jane Cooper, John Tagg married Mary Mashford and Thomas Tagg married Mary Parker, all in Fleet, Holbeach or Whaplode. My paternal grandfather, Joseph Tagg (b. c. 1870, see photo) was a blacksmith’s apprentice from Whaplode who became a Methodist minister. The local phone book still includes a fair number of Taggs but there are many more in London. There are also plenty of Taggs in the USA (particularly in California, New England, Michigan, Maryland, New York and across the Midwest). Apart from the Taggs you can find here, here, here, here and here, I could mention my cousin Peter D Tagg (Virginia, USA), my brother Roger Tagg in Adelaide (South Australia) and my brother Stephen Tagg near Glasgow (Scotland).My daughter, Mia (Maria) Tagg lives in London (UK) and is my favourite person. I may be the only Tagg in the Montréal phone book but there are many other Taggs elsewhere in Canada. |
[some day I will complete this part of the story!]
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Tagg seems to be the most common UK variant of the North German name Tagge. Lots of Tagges live in the Hamburg area. Apart from Tagge the optician, there’s Gerd Tagge, Holger Tagge (driving school), Birger Tagge (Senate of Hamburg University), Cassandra Tagge (Bergdorf Secondary School), Gilbert Tagge (volunteer firefighter), Jürgen Tagge, Carol Tagge, Dirk Tagge, etc. You can also get your engine tuned by Marcel Tagge in Klein Bünzow near the Polish border. |
There’s even a Tagge Street in New Berlin, renamed Kitchener (Ontario) after the Germanophobia generated in Canada during World War I. Tagges are quite common in the border areas between Germany and Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein, see map.). Apart from Police Inspector Jørgen Tagge of Danish Immigration, the island of Fehmarn (Puttgarden, etc.) claims to be the origin of the name Tagge. There's also Karna Tagge of the Fredensborg Golf Club, Jørn Ronnie Tagge (Danish journalist) and Susanne Tagge who works at StorageTek in Smørum.
Among musical / university Taggs online other than myself, a Google search for <music university Tagg> reveals the following names: John Tagg, James Tagg, Graeme Tagg, Kathleen or Kathy Tagg (South African pianist), Barbara Tagg, Stanley Tagg, Lawrence E Tagg, Lawrence V Tagg, Martyn Tagg, David Tagg, Graham Tagg (lead violin, Iceland Symphony Orchestra), Alan Tagg, brothers Peter and Derek Tagg (a.k.a. Richard Targett and Vic Austin respectively, both members of the band Trudy), Nick Tagg, Ken Tagg (record producer), etc., not to mention Larry Tagg (of Bourgeois Tagg fame) and Eric Tagg (adult contemporary fusion etc.). This preponderance of musical and university-type Taggs calls into question my strong aversion to genetic determinism: we all even look alike! Check also Annie Tagg (artist from Tennessee), Corey Tagg (music educator from Calgary), Dan Tagg (BBC, Director of Technology, Culture Online), Howard Tagg (East Texas Food Bank charity), Julian Tagg (Exeter City Football Club), Justin Tagg (Shooter films),
If Tagge and Tagg are names of Low German (North German/Danish) origin, what does tagg[e] mean? In Swedish and Norwegian tagg means thorn or spike. Tagg is also Swedish slang for a cigarette: guess how many times I heard the Philip Morris joke when I lived in Sweden (yawn). Nor does the fact that taggtråd means barbed wire in Swedish and Norwegian dissuade Scandinavians from making other sad puns on our name. Worse still, in English, nothing pleasant seems to rhyme with Tagg — bag, dag, drag, fag, gag, hag, jag, lag, nag, rag, sag, slag and wag, for example: only crag, flag and stag seem relatively inoffensive. My mother wisely advised me as a Tagg not to poke fun at other people’s names. Still, as my Swedish students once kindly remarked, ‘ingen ros utan tagg’ = ‘no rose without thorn’. Besides, if there’s nothing strange about being called Spike [e.g. Milligan] or [EMI-]Thorn[e] in English, what’s so weird about being called Tagg? As I said, we are legion and here to stay, at least until global warming melts the ice caps and releases all those billions of cubic kilometres of methane from the bottom of the ocean so that we end up like Venus (neighbouring planet, not the goddess of love). Why not start by scrapping all SUVs?
Philip
— from Greek Philippos
(phil- = like, love; [h]ippos = horse): literally a male
person who loves horses. Neither my parents nor the Greeks of ancient times
meant that people named Philip engage in erotic acts with horses. Perhaps
the Greeks meant something like speed freak since horses were the fastest
mode of transport at the time. My parents, with their keen sense of assonance
and language rhythm knew that a two- or three-syllable name with an accentuated
vowel other than A [æ] would sound better than, for example,
Jan Tagg or Ralph Tagg.
Among famous men who may have played a part in popularising the name Philip are:
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This
logo may have also contributed to the name’s popularity, though I
can’ think why.
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Philip
the hermeneutician
PVTASNE INTELLEGIS QVAE LEGIS |
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Understandest thou what thou readest?
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In the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament of the Bible), chapter 8 (verses 26-38), we are told that an angel of God instructs Philip to ‘go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza’. The passage continues (complete passage in Latin):
‘And he arose and went... And, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, reading Esaias the prophet.... Then the Spirit said unto Philip “Go near and join thyself to this chariot”. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet and said “Understandest thou what thou readest?” And he [the Ethiopian] said “How can I, except some man should guide me? ...
After that Philip
explains the passage about the Son of God being ‘led like a lamb
to the slaughter’ and ends up baptising the Ethiopian. That Philip’s
hermeneutic skills of persuasion were certainly more effective than mine are.
Actus Apostolorum, 8: 26-38 (complete passage in Latin)
Angelus autem Domini locutus est ad Philippum, dicens “Surge et vade contra meridianum, ad viam quae descendit ab Hierusalem in Gazam: haec est deserta.” Et surgens abiit. Et ecce vir Aethiops, eunuchus, potens Candacis reginae Aethiopum, qui erat super omnes gazas eius, venerat adorare in Hierusalem et revertebatur sedens super currum suum, legensque prophetam Esaiam. Dixit autem Spiritus Philippo “Accede et adiunge te ad currum istum.” Adcurrens autem Philippus, audivit eum legentem Esaiam prophetam et dixit “Putasne intellegis quae legis?” Qui ait “Et quomodo possum, si non aliquis ostenderit mihi?” Rogavitque Philippum ut ascenderet et sederet secum. Locus autem scripturae quam legebat erat hic: “Tamquam ovis ad occisionem ductus est: et sicut agnus coram tondente se sine voce, sic non aperuit os suum. In humilitate iudicium eius sublatum est. Generationem illius quis enarrabit quoniam tollitur de terra vita eius.” Respondens autem eunuchus Philippo dixit “Obsecro te de quo propheta dicit hoc? De se an de alio aliquo?” Aperiens autem Philippus os suum et incipiens ab scriptura ista, evangelizavit illi Iesum. Et dum irent per viam, venerunt ad quandam aquam; et ait eunuchus: “Ecce aqua, quid prohibet me baptizari? Et iussit stare currum, et descenderunt uterque in aquam, Philippus et eunuchus, et baptizavit eum.