Explore the Family Name Mogul

The meaning of Mogul

1. Altered form of Muggle, itself an altered form of Swiss German Muggli. Alteration of the name Muggle (and of names in 2 and 3 below) occurred under the influence of the English word mogul, which is derived from the name of the Mughal dynasty (see Mughal); it denotes a powerful ruler or businessman and is also used as a nickname for a powerful person of an autocratic disposition. 2. Altered form of Mogle, a surname of German or Jewish origin; see also 1 above. 3. American shortened (and altered) form of Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) Mogulsky, a habitational name of uncertain origin, and Mogilevsky, and perhaps also of some other similar (like-sounding) Jewish surname (compare 2 above and see also 1 above). 4. Turkish (Moğul): apparently a variant of Moğol, an ornamental (less likely ethnic) name meaning ‘Mongol’, which may also be associated with the Mughal Empire (see Mughal). 5. Pakistani and Indian: Anglicized form of Mughal. History: The progenitor of some of the American Moguls was Johan Muggle, who immigrated to the US from Switzerland in 1869 or 1870 and settled in MA a few years later. Apparently it was his son John George Muggle who changed the surname Muggle, which is not found in Switzerland, to Mogul, since all of his children bore the latter form.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.