Ian C Pidgeon

Possible derivations of the name are:

1.  A nickname - especially for someone easily 'plucked' or swindled.
2.  Someone who looked after pigeons, which were once an item of food.
3.  From the French for 'Little John' (petit Jean).

I hear there are Pigeons living today in France.   It it quite possible that many Pigeons crossed the Channel during periods of Protestant persecution in the 16th and 17th centuries.   Perhaps this explains the high concentration of Pidgeons today in the Devon/Dorset region.   But it is also quite likely that other Pidgeons were so named because of their trade or gullibility.

The spelling of the name in early times had many variations:  Pegyn, Pigyn, Pygyn, Pygyon, Pygeon, Pigeon Pidgeon, Pigin and Pigine were all used in Badsey, Worcestershire in the 15th and 16th centuries.   Other early variations found on the IGI are Pigion, Pigen, Pigon, Pygan, Peigeion, Piggen, Pyggen, Piggyn, Pyggyn.   There is also some confusion with the name Piggin (see below).   However, modern spellings have been distilled down to just three variations:  Pidgeon, Pigeon and Pidgen.   Anything else is most likely to be a spelling or transcription error.

In the 1881 census the following variations can be found.   The list gives the number of people in the census with the name, and if you click on one of the major names you can see where in the country they were living.   Some of these are obviously spelling errors.

Pidgeon
Pigeon
Pidgen
Pigjin
Pidgon
Pidgion
Pigion
Pigen
Pigeons
Pidgeons
Pidgin
Pigens
     Total

993
210
39
8
7
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1270