Re: Dutch surnames (scatological warning!)

Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets skrev:
> 2009/4/7 René Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...>
>
>> 2009/4/6 Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets
>> <tsela.cg@...>:
>>> Note that my second last name (my husband's family
>>> name) is also
>> relatively
>>> strange/funny. "Koevoets" simply means "cow foot" :)
>>> .
>> does it? I don't know about the etymology of the name,
>> but I'd expect "cow foot" to be "koeienvoet". Perhaps
>> it's related to "koevoet" = crowbar?
>>
>>
> I doubt it. It's what the Koevoets themselves say their
> name means (they even have a family weapon with a cow's
> foot on it. It's not an original one of course, it was
> made something like a century ago). That said, it might
> be folk etymology. In any case, whether the name means
> "cow foot" or "crowbar", you have to agree that it's a
> weird family name (as far as I know, the Koevoets family
> name originates from Breda. Would that explain the
> etymology?).
>
> My husband always says that when completely translated
> into French, his full name sounds quite noble (as long as
> you don't know French :) ). Of course, in French he makes
> it Jean Henry Marie Pied de la Vache-Grandsire (mine
> would be Christophe Alain Grandsire-Pied de la Vache). I
> personally prefer to keep to the original version :) .
This reminds me of the old French fashion
of using the naming format

_<first name> <father's surname> de <mother's surname>_.

I guess this was a quasi-legitimate way of making a
bourgeois name sound 'noble' by getting a _de_ into
it.  It is of course also reminicent of the Hispano-
phone formats

_<first> <father's surname> <mother's surname>_

and

_<first> <father's surname> de <husband's surname>_.

What I wonder is how common this format was in France,
and how long it was in use.  I'm quite sure the _terminus
ante quem_ was 1789, but when did it begin?

FWIW _kofot_ is only 'crowbar' in Swedish.  The hoof
of a cow is _klöv_, which is an ablaut derivation of
_clave[^1]_.  Christophe's surname sounds like the
nickname of the patriarch of a fairy-tale robber band!
(And of course St. Christopher was originally a robber!! :-)

[^1]: _cleave_ from PIE *gleubh- has both a strong
inflection _clove, cloven_ and a class I weak
_cleft, cleft_, while _cleave_ from *gleibh- is
only class II weak _cleaved, cleaved_ -- i.e.
regular in modern English terminology.  You learn
something every day!

BTW how would you translate _arrêter_ in my sig?

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
  à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
  ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
  c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)

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