... Begga was probably imported by the Danes to Scandinavia, where it is still in use, though there it may be a contraction for either Bergljot or Brigitta...
... St. Begga, also called Hien or Hayne, was of Irish birth; but about 620, was imported by some of the Keltic missionaries of the North of England, and St. Aidan consecrated her at Whitby as the first nun in Northumbria.  Leaving St. Hilda to govern there in her stead, she founded the abbey, known by her English name of St. Bees, and at present serving as a university.  A French St. Begga, whose mother was Northumbrian, was wife to a man whose strange destiny was to be, first, Maire du Palais, then, Bishop of Metz, and lastly to be killed in the chace.  After his death, she founded a monastery, which is considered by some to have been the germ of the admirable institution of béguines, who did the work of sisters of charity in the Netherlands long before the French order was established by St. Vincent de Paul... (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884).