Several of you have asked me to explain my pen-name, ‘Gregge’. My great grandfather was born Thomas Gregge. You pronounce it ‘Gregger’, just like you would normally say ‘Gregor’. And that’s where it comes from. In the bad old days of King James VI of Scotland, he decreed that the name McGregor be ‘altogidder abolisheed’. Those who kept it faced death. You can look up the details if you like.
As you can imagine, everyone in clan McGregor dropped the ‘Mc’. Some changed their name entirely, to names like Fletcher or Petrie, but many kept to Gregor or Gregg. There are several other variants. Many fled to England and carried their new surname south. You can imagine some baptism registrar in the south of England being told that a baby’s surname was Gregor, and transcribing it ‘Gregge’.
So that’s how Thomas came to be a Gregge. He was a bit of a ne-er do well, although his distant ancestors were a well off family. If you go to the graveyard at Pavenham, near Bedford, you’ll find some tombs of the rich ones. (The money went down another line – doesn’t it always? I’ve written a Sonnet about that; you’ll find it in the ‘Writings’ section of this website.) Unfortunately, by the time Thomas came along he couldn’t care less, or maybe he didn’t know, how other people spelt his name. So he was born a Gregge, but died a Gregg.
So that’s where I come in. I come from a long line of Gregges, though I’m a Gregg. Another thing. All my life I’ve had to spell my name, as people have tried their best to get it wrong. Clegg, Grieg, Greig, Griggs, you name it, I’ve had it. I’ve always had to shout ‘G – R – E – G – G’ just like my parents had to. And then, out of the blue, along comes a big chain of bakery shops. I’ve got nothing against Greggs the Bakers, I buy stuff there, but they are using my name! (If you’re not in the UK, this is a a relatively new British chain.) And suddenly everybody knows how to spell it! The downside is, if you search the internet for Gregg, you’ll get a gazillion hits. So a devious little thought formed in my mind. Why not adopt a pen-name? Other authors do! And what better name? It’s only one letter different from mine, and it was my family name only three generations back, so I can lay a legitimate claim to it – Philip Gregge!
