In Germany, "Pogge" is the word for frog in the Plattdeutsch (Low German or "Low Saxon") dialect spoken throughout northern Germany (frog is "frosch" in standard High German). The frog statue above that sits atop the grave monument of Herr Pogge von Stefan Behrends in Hamburg's Ohlsdorf Cemetery is a visual pun on his surname.

In England, "Pogge" is the common name of the Armed Bullhead or Hooknose fish (Agonus cataphractus), a tidal fish found in estuaries along the English coast.

Pogge is a German surname originating in northwestern Germany. My great-great grandfather Johannes Heinrich Pogge and his two brothers (Johannes Hermann and Franz X) emigrated to Iowa in the mid-1850s from the village of Herzfeld in Westfalen Germany (now in the modern state of Nordrhein-Westfalen). Many of the Pogges in the United States that I have been in contact with can trace their descent to one of the three Pogge brothers who made their homes in Neola and West Point Iowa. Most of these Pogges lived in and around Neola, West Point, Council Bluffs, and Iowa City until the Second World War, after which they diffused around the country. Most still live in the midwestern US.

Updated: 2002 February 4