ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1586
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1586
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25 Apr 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Vermingarde> is an authentic French household name, and
wondered if it could be justified by analogy to the French place names
<Vermandois>, <Bonnegarde>, and <Beauregard>.  Here is what we have found.

Using a place name as the basis for a household is a good idea.  A small
settlement is a good historical model for a household.  Another model is a
noble family, whose household could be identified by its family name.  In
this letter, therefore, we will examine whether there could have been a
medieval French placename or family name that sounded similar to
<Vermingarde>.

The best historical re-creation, of course, would be to use a real medieval
placename or family name.  We found a few possibilities that you may want
to consider.  The city of <Vermand> produced the surnames <Vermand>,
<Vermande>, and <Vermandel>.  In the 12th century, the city's name appears
to have been spelled <Virmand>.  Elsewhere in France, there are towns
<Vermenton>, <Vermont>, and <Vermot> [1, 3].

One could try to justify an invented placename very similar to
<Vermingarde>, but not from the roots of <Vermandois> or <Beauregard>.  The
name of the county <Vermandois> and its capital <Vermand> derive from the
<Viromandui>, a Gaulish tribe.  <Beauregard> is <beau> "beautiful" +
<regard> "view".  <Bonnegarde> is slightly more encouraging: The second
element <-garde> means "fortress" and the entire name "good or strong
fortress" [1].

Searching for a basis for the first element <Vermin->, we found a place
<Varmonzey> 1292, also spelled <Vermonsey> 1390 and <Vermonzey> 1481.  This
name derives from an Old French given name, <Warimund>.  We found another
given name <Wirmund> which could similarly have been the root of a place
name [2].

Unfortunately, the second element <-garde> "fortress" is quite rare in
French place names.  We found only a few examples other than the
<Bonnegarde> you cited, and also some examples of the similar <-gard>
"garden, enclosed farm".  Only one of these was constructed with a given
name as its first element, <Hangard>, which was originally "Hano's garden"
[1, 5].  This is very slim foundation indeed for extrapolating a general
pattern that could be the basis for inventing <Virmongard> as a
hypothetical 13th century placename derived from a phrase meaning
"Wirmund's garden"; or <Vermongard>, a similar construction from
"Warimund's garden".

We have to stress that this is a very speculative justification.  We don't
think it is particularly good re-creation.  Some more likely French place
names are <Vermoncourt>, <Vermonburg>, or <Chastel Virmont> [4], from
elements <-court> "estate", <-burg> "fortress", or <Chastel> "castle".  If
you're interested in any of these possibilities, let us know and we'll send
you the details.


We hope this letter has been useful.  Please write us again if any part of
it has been unclear or if you have other questions.  I was assisted in
researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Hartmann Rogge, and
Walraven van Nijmegen.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  25 Apr 1999


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References

[1] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de
Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963).

[2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de
l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_ (Paris: Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, 1972), III:465b, 477-8.

[3] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et
Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.nn. Vermont,
Vermenouze.

[4] Morlet, op. cit., III.470a shows <Bois Wimont> derived from the given
name <Widmund>.  Thus, <Wirmund> in a similar construction might have
become <Chastel Virmont>.

[5] GEONet, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency publi GNS Database
(WWW: NIMA, 1998).
http://164.214.2.59/gns/html/index.html