The earliest known written reference to the family is dated to 1107-1122, this reference in the form 'Cilterne Fageth' indicates that the name in it's present form of 'Vagg' has evolved over many hundreds of years. The following list gives a brief overview of the name in it's various forms, along with the dates and location of their occurance:

• 1107-1122 - Cilterne Fageth
• 1130 - Robert Faget
• c.1269 - William Fag
• c.1274 - Thomas Fageht
• c.1274 - Ralph Faget
• c.1315 - Simon Vag
• c.1328 - John Fagge
• c.1341 - John Vagge
• 1490 - John Vagg

As you can see the first known reference to the name in it's modern form occurs almost 500 years after the first reference. Given that fact, tracing the origin of our name must start from it's earliest form of 'Fageth'. The following extracts provide some analysis of this:

Alfage appears in 971 as Alfegus. The stem fag, in the place-name as a double name, Fage and Vage, and the modern Fagge, is taken by Foerstenmann to be from the Gothic Faheds, A.S., faegen, agreeableness or cheerfulness. The name is really Aelfegus or Alfegus, as Aelfred or Alfred. This name Vage, Fage, Faggus and Veggus, as it is variuosly spelt, was the name of the legendary highwayman of the west who is said to have had his robber's retreat at Oare. The author of Lorna Doone was the son of a former rector of Oare. Was Vage the prototype of a Doone?

Chilthorne Domer and Chilthorne Fage.- The prefix chil above all needs careful attention to the earlier spellings as well as the later. These are in the Doomsday book, Cildetona for Chilton Trinity, Cilela for part of Chew Stoke, Cilletona for Chilton Trepit, in Cannington, Ciltorna for Chilthorne in Chilthorne Domer and Chilthorne Vagg, Citerna for Chilton Cantelo. It is easy to say, especially where the local circumstances, as in Chilton Polden, are favourable, that the derivation is from chill, cold, the cold spot or town. Chilthorne Domer and Chilton Trinity both carry the clear marks in the Doomsday book of the prefix child. The latter is child-tona, and the former childe-terna, "chilterna." Chiltona Domer is Chiltene in 1297, and Charlton, in Shepton Mallet, is Cerlatona in the Doomsday book and Chilton in 1297, T.E., also called Charlton Dolting, a member of the same manor.

Cild is translated into the Latin puer, in the sense of youthful knight. It then passed into a personal name. The surnames Domer and Fage are both personal or family names. "The village of Dummer, anciently called Dumere, Dunmere and Domer, near Basingstoke, was the berceau from which the Somersetshire Dummers originally sprang." And this latter derives, it may be added, its name Dummer from a Saxon name, Domhere. Dom is the Anglo-Saxon dom; Old High German, tuom, corresponding to our doom. domhere is Doom Herr, or doom-lord - judge. Herr in Old High German is Here and Hero. Fage is also a personal name, as our present names Fagg and Fagge show. In his Alt-deutsches Namenbuch, the great authority, Foerstemann, derives it from a Gothic root - faheds, joyfulness; Anglo-Saxon, faegan, joyful, with a correspondent Celtic stem, as in the irish name Fagan. In a Montacute charter of reign of Henry I. it is found as Cilterne Fageth and Faget. Early in the 14th century is the name Robert Faget. The double name is very early. Fage becomes Vagge in pure Somerset, as fire is pronounced vier. Hence the name Chilthorne Vage in Nomina Villarum. Then the name occurs of Johannes Vage. There is a place-name in Yeovil, "John Clarke, of Vagge, in Yeovil."

Whether St. Phaganus, a legate of Pope Elentherus, is to be traced in the local name Vage may be doubtful.

Flat loaf or fish such as a plaice (Surnames of Sussex by Richard McKinley)