The surname of APPLEGATH was of local origin near Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. The earliest of the name on record in Scotland, appears to be William Apilgarth, who witnessed a grant to Cambuskenneth Abbey, circa. 1190. Richard of Aplegarth was a hobelar (a tool-maker) in the garrison of Roxburgh in 1340.

The name was found early in England, William de Apelgart was recorded in County Suffolk in the year 1115. Robert Appelgarth was listed in Yorkshire in 1183. Geoffrey de Appelgarth was documented in County Kent in the year 1273. Ralph de Apelgard, County Norfolk, ibid. Richard de Appelgarth, was recorded in County Somerset during the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), and Edward de Appelgarthe of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Robert Appelgarth and Mary Crouch were married at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in the year 1769. The name is now generally found as Applegate, and also spelt as Aplegath and Aplegarth. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. The associated coat of arms is recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered at Rapley, County Hampshire.