Gough Name

The combination of (ough) can be pronounced nine (9) different ways. The following sentence contains them all:

"A rough-coated dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode the streets of Scarborough after falling into a strough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

That should clear things up! (In case you were wondering, it's Gough as in cough and rhymes with Goff.)

The name Goff/Gough is generally a Welsh form of the Gaelic word gobha, which means "a smith". The old Teutonic word simtha meant a smoother of metal. This became the Anglo-Saxon word smid. In Welsh and Breton it became "gof" and in Cornish "gov." From this we can see that the Welsh had invaded England very early, through the evidence provided in the names that they left behind. In 1207 there is Bertram Goffe, Lincolnshire; 1327 a Thomas Goff, Warwickshire; 1331 a Nicholas Goff in Westmoreland. The name Gough in Welsh means "red-complexioned" and is most often pronounced Goff especially in England and Ireland.

Gough, formerly pronounced Goch, is now called Goff. There are two Irish septs whose name has sometimes been anglicized as Gough. Ó Cuacháin, of the Hy Fiachrach group and located in Mayo, is one, formerly O'Cowhane, O'Quohane etc., now obsolete as such and rare as Gough. The other is Mag Eothach which is said to be one of the many branches of the great MacKeogh sept: it is now found as MacGeough, MacGeogh and MacGoff in counties Armagh, Monaghan and Louth, and seventeenth century records indicate that this was also the case then.

The great majority of Goughs in Ireland are of Welsh origin. Families called Coch (Welsh word for red or ruddy) came to Ireland in the thirteenth century, settled mainly in Dublin and Waterford and have been identified with those counties since. In Dublin mainly as merchants, in Waterford as administrators and landed gentry.

In 1329 Henry Goghe, of a family in Munster, obtained a grant of land and houses at Dungarvan; and west Waterford has since been the homeland of many Gough families. In 1607 Sir James Gough purchased the Kilmanahan Castle estate. They were also in the city of Waterford: Nicholas Gough was mayor in 1435 and 1441 and Sir Edward Gough was mayor in 1660. Sir James Gough was one of the Catholic M.Ps imprisoned by James 1.

In 1641 the Goughs were listed with the Ronans, the Coppingers and the Fitzgeralds the leading families of Youghal. Alderman Edward Gough was M.P. for that town in 1634 and 1639, and another Alderman Edward Gough was its member in the Parliament of 1689. In the nineteenth century the Goughs of Munster were mainly notable as high-ranking officers in the British army: one of these, Field-marshal Hugh Gough (1779-1869), was created a viscount in 1849. These were of a Wiltshire family which came to Co. Limerick in the seventeenth century and are now at Lough Cutra Co. Galway. One of a different type, was Wexford-born John William Goff (1847-1924), a noted jurist in America, whose connection with the Fenian organization is elucidated in the Devoy correspondence.

Gough Family Crest

Origin: Welsh

The countryside of Wales was the birthplace of the name Gough. Gough originally started out as a name for a ruddy or red-complexioned person. The name Gough, one of only a few Welsh nickname surnames, is derived from the Welsh word "coch," which means "red. "

Spelling variations include: Gough, Goff, Gof, Goffe and others.

First found in Radnorshire where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Edward Goffe who settled in Cambridge Mass. in 1630; John Goffe settled in Salem Mass. in 1630; Robert Goffe and his wife settled in Virginia in 1622.