Romance
French family heritage
The Latin tongues — French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.
Clan Rising is the living atlas of European family heritage, built one people at a time. French heritage is now on the map — the meaning of your surname, the homeland it came from, and the stories that travelled with it into the diaspora.
On the map
Where French heritage sits in Europe
This is the homeland on the modern map. The names below already file here; the heritage regions that subdivide it, and the deeper map, are coming next.
French names already in the atlas
- BernardBrave as a bear — a Frankish name made French.
- DuboisOf the wood — France's commonest forest name.
- MoreauThe dark one — a nickname turned name.
- LaurentFor Saint Laurence — whose name the great river carries.
- LefebvreThe smith — Smith and Schmidt's French cousin.
- Leroy'The king' — the festival crown, not the throne.
- TremblayThe aspen grove — and the commonest name in Quebec.
- GagnonA founding name of New France, from Perche.
- Roy'King' without the article — and a pillar of Quebec.
- CôtéOf the slope — a founding name of the St Lawrence.
- BouchardStrong as a fortress — a Frankish noble name.
- GauthierRuler of the army — the French Walter.
- MorinThe little dark one — Moreau's cousin.
- LavoieBy the road — a name from the wayside.
- FortinThe sturdy one — strength in miniature.
- OuelletA near-vanished Norman name, reborn whole in Quebec.
- PelletierThe furrier — and fur was the wealth of New France.
- BélangerThe bear-spear — a Frankish name, fair-sounding.
- Lévesque'The bishop' — service, bearing, or pageant.
- BergeronThe shepherd-boy — a pastoral name, deep in Quebec.
- Leblanc'The white' — and the most Acadian name of all.
- GirardBrave with the spear — the French Gerard.
- BoucherThe butcher — by way of the he-goat.
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