French surnames: origin, meaning and examples

French surnames have different meanings, which allow them to be classified into several types. Most French surnames are divided into:

• Patronymic and Matronymic Surnames : Many of the French surnames belong to this type. They derive from the name of the father or mother of its bearer. An example is Tomas Robert , which would mean »Thomas, son of Robert».
• Occupational Surnames: These surnames described, in some way, people’s occupations. For example, the first and last name Pierre Boulanger means »Pierre, the cook». This type of surname is very common in France.
• Geographic surnames: based on the regions or geographical areas where people resided. In this case, Yvonne Marseille means “Yvonne from the town of Marseille.” Another example is the surname Beaulieu , which means “beautiful place”.
• Descriptive surnames : based on some unique quality of the person, for example ” Petit “, which means small. Or also: Bonhomme , which means “good man”.
• Alias ​​surnames : in some areas of France this classification of surnames was adopted to distinguish between different branches of the same family. They are surnames that occur mainly in families that remained in the same place for generations.
• Surnames of Germanic origin : A German invasion gave rise to Germanic names in France, from which surnames of this type were derived.

The 50 most popular French surnames

At present there are various French surnames that are very common in the world. Among them is Martin , since more than 300,000 people have that surname in France. Below is a list of the 50 most common French surnames.

Bibliography

• L’Archiviste Jérôme. Dictionnaire des changements de noms de 1803–1956 “. France.
• Bertier de Sauvigny, G. History of France . (2009). Spain. Rialp Editions.