Surnames were first used by the nobility and wealthy land owners. Later the custom was followed by merchants and townspeople and eventually by the rural population. This process took two or three centuries. In France, the practice was well established by the 1200s.

Since 1539 the law that required priests to write baptism registers also required them to write the surname next to the baptismal name. In the 1700s researchers often find a name written various ways in the same document. But by 1808, especially in civil registration, the spelling of surnames became fixed.

Jewish Naming Customs. Before 1808, the use of a family name by Jews was left to the discretion of the individual. Most Jews in France followed the custom of using only a given name and the father's name, such as Isaac, son of Abraham. Occasionally the name of the town where the person lived was used, as in Isaac of Metz.

Most Jews did not adopt hereditary family names until required to do so by law. In 1808 Napoléon made Jews take a fixed surname. They were required to register their surnames and some of these surname registers still exist. They are usually at the departmental archives.

Double surnames. In some areas of France, especially in the mountainous regions of the Alps and the Pyrénées, individuals may have taken a second (double) surname. The first part of the surname is usually the family surname. The second part of the surname may be a place, a house name, or a nickname. Examples of double surnames are—

Lavit-Jeantoy
Dupraz-Canard
Raffin-Varende

Alias names

HURNONHURNON dit LAJOIEHURNON-LAJOIELAJOIE

Official Name Changes. Starting in 1474 anyone who wished to change his name was required to get permission from the King. Official name changes are indexed in—

Jérôme, archiviste. Dictionnaire des changements de noms de 1803 à 1956 (Dictionary of changed names from 1803 to 1956). Paris: Librairie Française, 1974. (FHL book 944 D4j 1974; not on microfilm.)

French Names in Other Languages

French genealogical records may be in various languages: French, German, Latin, or Italian. Your ancestor's name could be in Latin in his birth record, in French in his marriage record, and in German on his death record. Given names are often very different when translated into different languages; for example—

Latin	French	German
Deodata	Dieudonné	Theodor
Stephanus	Etienne	Stephan
Guilhelmus	Guillaume	Wilhelm
Jacobus	Jacques	Jacob

Given names are translated into 23 different European languages, including English, in this book—

Janowowa, Wanda, et al. Sownik Imion (Dictionary of Names). Wroclaw: Ossoliski, 1975. (FHL book 940 D4si; film 1,181,578 item 2; fiche 6000839.)

Given Names

Children were usually given two, three, four, or more given names. Some of these may be the names of parents or other relatives. Baptism names may be different from the names given in civil registration. They may not have been used later in the child's life.

Many given names have variants and dialectical forms. Dominique may also be found as Demange. Isabelle may be called Babet. An example of a book about name meanings, variants, and places of origin is—

Morlet, Marie-Thérèse. Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille (Etymological dictionary of surnames). Paris: Perrin, 1991. (FHL book 944 D46m; not on microfilm.)

See the “Archives and Libraries” section of this outline for information about Géopatronyme, a computerized file showing the frequency of surnames in each department of France.

Other books and microfilms about French names can be found in the Family History Library Catalog, Locality section, under—

FRANCE - NAMES, PERSONAL