Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from Coggeshall in Essex, named from an Old English personal name Cogg + halh ‘nook’.
- This name was taken to America in 1632 by John Coggeshall, who became first governor of RI, and in 1635 by John Cogswell. In 1887 a descendant, Daniel Cogswell, founded Cogswell College, San Francisco.