This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Tonge' or Tong, parishes in Salop, Kent, Lancashire (2), and West Riding of Yorkshire. Tongue, of course, is merely imitative. Probably all these places are so termed from the shape of the land (like a tongue). Middle English tonge or tunge, a. tongue. Of Tong in Salop it is said,' The river Werf commences from the union of two brooks at the western extremity of the parish' (Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England, iv. 357). The tongue of land in this case might lie between the two streams.

John de Tonghe, Salop, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Nicholas Tonge, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Simon de Tonge, Kent, ibid.

Roger Tunge, Yorkshire, ibid.

Wilielmus de Tonge, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

The township of Tongue is mentioned on the same page.

Peter Tonge, of Chester, shoemaker, 1572: Wills at Chester.

William Tonge, of Farnworth, Lancashire, 1583: ibid.

1639-60. Married — Charles Tonge and Mary Hancocke: St. Dionis Backchurch.

1770. — John Tongue and Elizabeth Griffiths: St. George, Hanover Square.

This name is pronounced by the families so called to sound like tonj, though those who erroneously make it sound like tongue are basically correct since it is derived from the English word-either, Reaney states, from residence on a tongue of land or from a propensity to chatter: Weekley also mentions a locative origin, from a place called Tonge. The present pronunciation was not universal a century ago, as we find it returned in birth registrations as Tong as well as Tonge, and in the list of graduates of Dublin University one is given as Tonge and another as Tonge alias Tongue. The latter was born in England in 1652. From that date on the name as Tonge is of fairly frequent occurrence in Irish records, principally in Co. Wexford (New Ross) and other east Leinster counties. It is, however, mainly in English records it is found and in the index to the publications of the Historical Manuscripts Commission Tonge and Tongue are equated.

The most notable man of the name in Irish history is associated with Ulster not Leinster: he was Miles Tonge, who was one of the men who cut the boom at the siege of Derry in 1689.

(English) belonging to Tong or Tonge; or Dweller at a Tongue or Point of Land (such, e.g., as would be formed by the meeting of two streams) [Middle English tonge, tunge, Old English tunge, a tongue] Two brooks meet at Tong(e (13th cent. Tonghe), Salop; and Tongland, Kirkcudbright, “stands at the confluence of the rivers Tarf and Dee”. The Yorks Tong, Tunge in the 13th cent., occurs as Tuinc ill Domesday-Bk.

An English name of various derivations mainly found in Co. Wexford since the seventeenth century.

SIF 147

Parishes and places in cos. Kent, York, Salop, Lancaster, and Leicester.