Riggs

Riggs comes from a surname associated with ridges in the landscape. The underlying word appears in northern English and Scots usage, making this a topographical name: it originally identified people through a feature of the place where they lived. Its final s belongs to the surname form, rather than marking a plural first name.

As a given name, Riggs retains the short, compact shape of its family-name source. Rigg is a closely related surname spelling, while Briggs, Wells, and Jones share a surname style without sharing the same meaning. Because the landscape connection is indirect, Riggs differs from choosing the ordinary English word Ridge itself, even though the two can evoke the same kind of setting.