Patronymic names and Noms de terre In the french nobility in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries

Abstract

Surnames among the French nobility are often composed of patronymic names, titles, and noms de terres (names of lands), joined by the preposition “de.” The aim of this article is, first, to analyze the articulation and devolution processes of these different components, as well as the meaning they could have had in the ancien règime. Second, the article examines what happened after the French Revolution to such names. The example of a court proceeding in the nineteenth century, involving two families and dealing with the usurpation of a nom de terre, leads to questions concerning the relations between law, common use, and the many functions of proper names in contemporary society.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Jean-Luc Bonniol, who helped with the inception of this article, and Marie-Claude Pingaud, who read the first version. The article was translated originally from the French by Rebecca Pinette.

Notes

1 L'Homme, a French review, dedicated an entire special issue to this topic (1980), in which Zonabend (pp. 7–23) was specifically referred to.

2 Here a decision was necessary whether family names should be changed to protect the anonymity of the individuals and families concerned, as is common in scientific studies. If this were done, the reader is automatically deprived of the connotation which, in the French context at the very least, are attached to certain names and contribute to their weight. A name that “says” nothing, denotes obscurity at best, and at worst inauthenticity; a name which “says something” is a name that generally is charged with historic and social renown, and because of this, cannot be confined to the private domain. Thus, the decision was made to use the actual names when they were already known through the roles played by their bearers in history or by because of their use in publications such as genealogies or memoirs, and only in cases where their use would not cast a shadow upon particular persons. In the latter case, I used fictitious names, inspired in most part by names I had noticed in Régis Valette's catalog (1989).

3 Texier inventories 134 judicial rulings concerning the nobility between 1812 and 1983. All are essentially judgments by appeals courts or the supreme court in cases concerning, for the most part, about noms de terre and titles (Texier having excluded all mention of jurisprudence with respect to patronymics). Of these 134 judgments, 34 took place between 1812 and 1852; 76 between 1852 and 1914 (Texier 1988, pp. 282–323).

4 A large part of this work was based on research in the private archives of two kinship groups (one of noble extraction, the other of the bourgeoisie) and on readings of genealogies, both in manuscript and printed form, from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. Much is owed to comments and direction that I received from researchers at the Library of the ANF (Association de la noblesse française), who generously allowed me to study their collections. My hearty thanks and appreciation to them and most especially to their librarian, le vicomte J. de Saulieu.

5 There are very short names, without the preposition or nom de terre, for example, Tobin, and others that are very long, made up of several noms de terre connected by prepositions or titles, for example, Carné-Trécesson-Coëtlogon or Le Compasseur de Créqui-Monfort de Courtivron (Valette 1989).

6 For jurists, as for French society generally, the definitions of patronymic and surname were identical, but for the nobility of the ancien règime, these definitions applied only to the first name, which was the most stable and was connected to lineage. Today, noms de terre and patronymics are both considered part of the “surname” and have the same stability.

7 More on the relationship between name and coat of arms can be found in the writing of Nassiet (1994)(pp. 5–30).

8 According to Texier (1988)(p. 61) the first lettre de noblesse can be traced back to 1270.

9 See Le Hardy 1912, pp. 56–57.

10 It was a son, born in 1836, who began so to designate his mother and his maternal ancestors in deeds and genealogies [Archives of J. in Ancenis (Loire Atlantique)].

11 Suggested le vicomte J. de Saulieu.

12 Genealogy of the house of Dresnay, anonymous manuscript, approximately 1790, from the archives of T. Plouézoc'h (Finistère).

13 A researcher in the ANF brought to my attention the proper usage in Brittany, which consists of placing the nom de terre before the patronymic, and joining both with a hyphen, for example, Dugay-Trouin.

14 In the archives used for this project, at least for the period ranging from the middle of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth, one can note that only the noms de terre were used in marriage announcements, but that funeral announcements also used the patronymic, perhaps because a larger public was being addressed.

15 L. de Kersauson, genealogy of the house of Bahuno, manuscript, 1860, from the archives of T. Plouézoc'h (Finistère).

16 “It is an ugly practice … to call each one by the name of their land and seigneurie, and the thing in the world which most confuses and misidentifies the races” (Montaigne 1950, p. 314).

17 In Brittany, for example, the oldest son (or, in the absence of males, the oldest daughter), inherited 2/3 of the property, the younger children sharing what remained. In the absence of sons, the oldest daughter, upon marrying, could take the name of the seigneurie she had inherited, even while living in another house. When there were several younger sons, they could either take the name of their wives or the name of some secondary seigneurie belonging to their lineage, having found its way into the family through a mother or grandmother. In reality, it was the name of the most important seigneurie that was taken, or rather the seigneurie, which could most likely support a new branch of the family. It is thus possible—though I was not able to establish proof through my research at its current stage—that names were more stable in the branches that came from the oldest of the younger sons than in those that came from the younger sons of younger sons.

18 According to the ANF, the readoption of noms de terre abandoned during the Revolution still today constitutes a large number of requests for name changes.

19 From the archives of T. Plouézoc'h (Finistère).

20 Quoted by L. Jacob in a preface for C. de Saint-Marc 1937.

21 This description is based upon research conducted in the archives of J. Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique). Direct quotations are from the archival collection.

22 In a letter addressed to the Minister of Justice in 1874, the marquis wrote that having being born around 1800, a generation before Gaston, he knew for quite a while that the Bruneaus were using the name Chemillé. But, he wrote, “I said nothing … had seen Monsieur Brunau [sic] named by the Empire Conseilleur de préfecture under the sole name of Chemillé (the name Brunau having been completely set aside) and yet again I said nothing” (June 1874). In short, the plaintiff does not intervene until the moment when the social advancement of the Bruneaus—crowned by the purchase of the title of comte—brings the family into the same circles as the Chemillés.

23 Having researched the archives left by Gaston Bruneau de Chemillé and not those of his adversary, I had more information for reconstructing his point of view than that of the marquis.

24 In modern times this could be translated as: “If the marquis thinks he's the cat's meow, the marquise is definitely what the cat dragged in,” an allusion to the suspected illegitimate birth of that particular lady.