ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2264 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2264 ************************************ 27 Mar 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a late 16th century man from central or western France. You also asked whether hyphenated given names like were used in this period. Here's what we've found. You wrote that you found a genealogy website that lists a born in 1598. We're not sure which one you used, but we found two that date the name to the early 17th century [1, 2]. Unfortunately, we can't be confident of this evidence: Genealogists often use modern spellings of surnames for older references. The modern surname ultimately derives from an Old French name, probably either or [3]. The early 17th century spelling [2], if it is correct, suggests that the origin is , via its later form . The name appears in 15th century records from Bordeaux as , , , , among other spellings [6]. Other likely late-period spellings are and [4]. The modern spelling <-oux> is unusual; we can't say when it is likely to have come into use. We also found a modern central French place name , in the department of Indre. That name was recorded in 1214 as [5], but as with the surname, we're not sure when the modern spelling first appeared. Compound given names like weren't common in France in our period, but examples appeared in the Provencal-speaking south as early as the 12th century [7, 8, 9]. Many early examples were patronymic, i.e. a man called was often the son of . We haven't seen period examples in the north, though. It's worth noting that the name itself didn't become popular in French until late in our period [10]. A central or western French is certainly plausible re-creation. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Adelaide de Beaumont. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 27 Mar 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] "Giroux" (WWW: The French Connection, 2001). This website lists , son of Jean Giroux, who was baptized 1633 in Re/veillon in the province of Perche. Note that this site uses [2] as a reference, but did not preserve the spelling used on that page; this is typical of genealogical presentations, in which identifying ancestors with their modern descendents is the primary goal. http://members.mint.net/frenchcx/giroux1.htm [2] "Toussaint Giroux" (WWW: Thomas A. Giroux). The website describes of Reveillon whose children were born between 1623 and 1640. The children are all surnamed . However, we have no way to know how reliably the original spellings were transcribed; it is not unusual for genealogists to standardize names to their modern spellings. http://www.crosswinds.net/~tagiroux/girouxsrc/toussaint.htm [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille_ (Librairie Acade/mique Perrin, 1997), s.n. Geroul. [4] The derivation of from is supported by examples of northern French place names known to derive from . Modern in Belgium appears as 1209, 1230, 1253, 1259, and in Latin 14th century. (The change of the second element of the name occurred when the legal status of the settlement changed.) Other examples include c.1093, which became 1230 and 1337; 1322, c.1450, 1240. This evidence suggests that the surname might have been spelled , , or late in our period. Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), III:319a. [5] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963), s.n. Giroux [6] Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Talan Gwynek, "Names Found in Commercial Documents from Bordeaux, 1470-1520" (WWW: privately published, 2000). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/bordeaux.html [7] Ramons lo Montalbes, "French/Occitan Names From The XII And XIII Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ramon/occitan/ [8] Arval Benicoeur, "Languedoc Names circa 1300" (WWW: privately published, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/toulouse/ [9] Labarge, Margaret Wade, _Gascony, England's first colony, 1204-1453 (London : H. Hamilton, 1980). She mentions 14th and 15th century men with compound given names. [10] Perouas, L., B. Barrie\re, B., J. Boutier; J.-C. Peyronnet, & J. Tricard, _Le/onard, Marie, Jean et les Autres: Les Pre/noms en Limousin depuis un Mille/naire (Paris: E/ditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984). Their earliest example of is 14th century.