Process: Placenames

Found a great book on Quebec family names by Roland Jacob, Votre nom et son histoire. Les noms de familles au Québec (Montréal, Les Éditions de l’Homme, 2006).

I already knew that the Legault family name meant one who dwells by the forest, but did not know of its origin. Jacob forwards two explanations. Either gault/gaud is from the Germanic root Waldo (to govern), or it is from the Germanic root wald (forest, woods). He believes the second to be the origin of the name, which would make Legault similar to the Laforest family name. (55) Though Gault placenames still exist in Eastern France (Marne, Loir-et-Cher and Eure-et-Loire), the French ancestor of all Legaults in North America, Noël Legault dit Deslauriers, was of Breton origin (Irvillac in Finistère). (142)

I had thought Lapalme was a nickname for a stone carver (one who uses his palm to mesure stone). It could be rather that it was a nickname associated to the practice of pilgrimages. Lapalme, like Palmer in English, was a name to designate the pilgrim who brought back palms to prove that he had undergone a long journey. (296)

Anger (angier) comes from the Germanic root Ansgari, a composite name formed by the root ans- (name of a pagan god) and the root –gari (to be ready). However Angers is a family name attributed to a person from the city of Angers in Anjou. (66) There seems to be many hypotheses on the origin of Anger.