A male name. there is an Old German name Hugi from hugu ‘heart’, ‘mind’; but Hugh may equally represent a hypocoristic form of any of the numerous names compounded with hugu. It was introduced into England by the Normans and is frequent in Domesday Book. The French forms of the name were Hugues and Hugon in the north, Hue and Huon in the south (cf. Ives and Ivon, Guy and Guyon, the medieval cas-sujet and cas-régime). Huon is found as late as the 16th C. The Latin form was Hugo. All these gave rise to English versions of the name, which are illustrated by the many surnames derived from it, such as Hugh, Hughes, Hugget and Huggin, Huggins (from diminutive Hug-et, Hug-in), Hew, Hewes, Heweson (from the North country Hew), Hewet, Hewit, Hewitt (from the diminutive Hew-et), Hewlett, Hewlitt (from the diminutive Hew-el-et), Hewling (from the diminutive Hew-el-in), How, Howes, &c., from the southern form How, and many others. The name was already common in the 12th C, but became still more popular in the following century in honour of St Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln (1135—1200), who was venerated in the North much as St Thomas was in the South. Later Little St Hugh of Lincoln (1246?-55), a child supposed to have been martyred by the Jews, added to the popularity of the name.

Hugo Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1082, Domesday Book 1086, Curia Regis Rolls 1199­1220. Hugh Hundred Rolls 1273. Howe, Hewe. Promptorium Parvulorum 1450. Hugelin Curia Regis Rolls 1200. 1273. Hugolinus Domesday Book 1086. Huet Hundred Rolls 1273, Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Hugline Hundred Rolls 1273. Huelin Hundred Rolls 1273. Hugethun Exchequer Rolls 1306.

A German form—cf. Italian Ugo—of Hugh; hence an English one. Much less common now than in the Middle Ages.