Savage surname meaning

Savage is a descriptive surname from Middle English and Anglo-French sauvage, a word used for someone viewed as wild, untamed, or uncivilized. Such labels were nicknames, not reliable statements about a family’s character or ancestry. Sauvage and Salvage preserve related French and English forms, while Savidge reflects later spelling development. The word could be applied independently in many communities, so the surname does not identify one original bearer. The nickname category is nevertheless direct and well supported, making high confidence appropriate for the catalog type.