This most interesting surname is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic name "O' Buadhaigh", composed of the Gaelic prefix "O", "male descendant of" and the Gaelic personal name "Buadhaigh" from "buadhach", meaning victorious. Bogue is the usual Anglicized form in County Cork, while it is also found as Bowie (Kilkenny and Waterford) and Bowes and Bowie in the midland counties. The original Gaelic sept was located in the Corca Laoidhe country (south-west Cork). The Census of 1659 also records the name as Buoige and O' Buoige in Co. Cork and Buo, in Co. Waterford, Bow and O' Boe in Co. Kilkenny and Bowe in Co. Laois; and it shows that the name was both numerous and scattered in the 17th Century. Bogue is also found in Ulster, particularly Co. Fermanagh where it is probably of Scottish origin, being introduced by Scottish settlers during the Plantations. In Scotland the name is of locational origin coming from Bogue in the parish of Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire (now Dumfries and Galloway), or Boak in the pairsh of Kirkcolm. David Bogue (1750-1825) was one of the founders of the London Missionary Society and was born in Coldingham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thady Boee, a cleric in the diocese of Limerick, which was dated 1547, The Chancery Rolls, during the reign of King Henry V111 "Bluff King Hal", 1509-1547. 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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