Hodgson

Hodgson is a surname. In Britain, the Hodgson surname was the 173rd most common (766 per million) in 1881 and the 206th most common (650 per million) in 1998. In the United States of America, Hodgson was the 3753rd most popular surname (30 per million) in the 1990 census.

Origin and meaning

The surname authority P. H. Reaney (1958, p. 166) states that Hodgson is derived from "son of Hodge" and that Hodge, in turn, is a "pet-form of Roger". This view has been repeated by several others, and Reaney (1967) himself.

Roger is a Norman French name. In which case one would expect it to be more common in the South of England, which was first and more heavily settled by the Normans. An alternative explanation that Hodgson is of Anglo-Saxon origin would suggest that Hodgson would be more common in Anglo-Saxon areas, particularly in the South of England or east of the Pennines.

By contrast the Hodgsons are most numerous in Yorkshire in England, which was settled by the Norse Vikings in the tenth century. Hodgson could thus be derived from the Norse name Oddgeir, as suggested by earlier surname authorities. Alternatively, it could derive from the less frequent Norse name Hrodgeir (from which, as it happens, the name Roger has evolved).

Brian Houghton Hodgson

Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himalayas, and several birds were named after him by others such as Edward Blyth. He was a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and wrote extensively on a range of topics relating to linguistics and religion. He was an opponent of the British proposal to introduce English as the official medium of instruction in Indian schools.

Early life

Hodgson was the second of seven children born at Lower Beech, Prestbury, Cheshire to Brian Hodgson (1766-1858) and Catherine (1775?-1851). His father lost money in a bad bank investment and had to sell their home at Lower beech. A great-aunt married to Beilby Porteus, the bishop of London, helped them but the financial difficulties were great. Hodgsons father worked as a warden of the Martello towers and in 1820 barrack-master at Canterbury. Brian (the son) studied at Macclesfield grammar school until 1814 and the next two years at Richmond under the tutelage of Daniel Delafosse. He was nominated for the Bengal civil service by an East India Company director, James Pattison. He went to study at Haileybury and showed an aptitude for languages. An early influence was Thomas Malthus who was a family friend and a staff member at Hailebury. At the end of his first term (May 1816) he obtained a prize for Bengali. He graduated from Haileybury with a gold medal.

Hodgson (disambiguation)

Hodgson may refer to: