Les 15 Noms de Famille Français qui Sont en Réalité Écossais
L'origine des noms
6,106 views
There are families in France who have been French for six hundred years and whose name has never been French.
They didn't Gallicize it. They kept it as it was, with its foreign spelling, while all around them French names were becoming distorted and worn away. There are Douglases in Berry, Hamiltons in Touraine, Stuarts in the Cher—and the town where the latter settled in the 15th century still flies the Scottish flag today.
They arrived before Joan of Arc.
This video explains why. The alliance of 1295, the longest in the history of the two countries. The fifteen thousand Scots who came to fight for a sixteen-year-old Dauphin who had lost his kingdom. The victory at Baugé in 1421, the Duchy of Touraine given to a Scot in 1424, the disaster at Verneuil the same year. The Scottish Guard, the unit that watched over the body of the King of France for 412 years. Bordeaux wine. And the regiments of exiles raised after 1746.
We examine fifteen names: where they come from, what they mean in Gaelic, and where they settled in France.
Then, at the end, a legal fact that almost no one knows—and which alone explains why these names have never changed their spelling, unlike all the other foreign names that arrived in France.
Yours might be on the list. And if it isn't, there are four signs that will help you find out anyway.
WARNING: This video is produced for educational purposes. The etymologies follow standard works of Scottish and French onomastics; several names have multiple possible origins, and these uncertainties are noted in the video. The military numbers cited for the period 1419-1424 are estimates that vary depending on the chronicles and historians. Having a name that sounds Scottish does not establish Scottish ancestry: only archival research can confirm lineage. Reminder: genealogical DNA tests for private individuals are prohibited in France by Article 16-10 of the Civil Code.
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Les 15 Noms de Famille Français qui Sont en Réalité Écossais
L'origine des noms
6,106 views
There are families in France who have been French for six hundred years and whose name has never been French.
They didn't Gallicize it. They kept it as it was, with its foreign spelling, while all around them French names were becoming distorted and worn away. There are Douglases in Berry, Hamiltons in Touraine, Stuarts in the Cher—and the town where the latter settled in the 15th century still flies the Scottish flag today.
They arrived before Joan of Arc.
This video explains why. The alliance of 1295, the longest in the history of the two countries. The fifteen thousand Scots who came to fight for a sixteen-year-old Dauphin who had lost his kingdom. The victory at Baugé in 1421, the Duchy of Touraine given to a Scot in 1424, the disaster at Verneuil the same year. The Scottish Guard, the unit that watched over the body of the King of France for 412 years. Bordeaux wine. And the regiments of exiles raised after 1746.
We examine fifteen names: where they come from, what they mean in Gaelic, and where they settled in France.
Then, at the end, a legal fact that almost no one knows—and which alone explains why these names have never changed their spelling, unlike all the other foreign names that arrived in France.
Yours might be on the list. And if it isn't, there are four signs that will help you find out anyway.
WARNING: This video is produced for educational purposes. The etymologies follow standard works of Scottish and French onomastics; several names have multiple possible origins, and these uncertainties are noted in the video. The military numbers cited for the period 1419-1424 are estimates that vary depending on the chronicles and historians. Having a name that sounds Scottish does not establish Scottish ancestry: only archival research can confirm lineage. Reminder: genealogical DNA tests for private individuals are prohibited in France by Article 16-10 of the Civil Code.