D'Urbervilles and du Maurier

It all goes back to 1066 AD, when England was invaded and conquered by the Normans led by William The Conqueror, Duke of Normandy. The Normans spoke a form of French. The Normans formed the ruling class, and even today many English families have French looking names. Many French words passed into the English language after 1066.

These names are not always pronounced in the French way. du Maurier is, but le Mesurier is pronounced "le measurer" for example.

A famous British general of recent years is called de la Billiere. Note the small d and l.

Yes, de, du, roughly mean the same as the English word 'of'. They are French.

Hi and welcome to a2k.

I don't know exactly where these names originate but would bet that they are French at some point in their history.

Given how geographically close England and France are, it is no surprise that there have been many movements of people between the two, over the centuries.

In my family (I'm living in Prague but I'm English), there is an element which came over with William I ("The Conquerer") in 1066 and my great grandmother was French, from Lyon - her parents moved over for business in London in the 1850s, I think.

In French "de" means "of" or "from" - the e is dropped in front of vowels and "du" is "of the", when preceding a masculine noun. "de la" is the feminine version and "des" the plural.

I hope that helps.

KP

Thanks a lot. Avoir un beau jour (=Hve a good day?!)

O'....
This is my wild guess: names start with O', such as O'Hara, O'Conor, O'Mera, originated in Irland, right? My inspiration came from Scarlet O'Hara.

Generally, you're right and it's a reasonable assumption to make:

O'Leary, O'Callaghan, O'Brien, etc. are all typically Irish - I believe it's like "son of" (or similar).

In Scotland, the use of Mc/Mac before the name (either separate or joined) indicates the same thing.

The Scandinavians (and their ancestors who invaded Britain) use -sen or -dottir to indicate son or daughter of. "-dottir" is not used in English versions, but names ending in -sen or -son are common (in England and Scotland).

Where are you from?

KP

lets not forget (off the top of my head)

ter, van, van der (Dutch/Flemish)
von, zu (German)
di (Italian)
de, dos (Spanish)
da (Portuguese)
ap (Welsh)

Then again in history books you read about John Of Gaunt, Goeffrey Of Monmouth, etc. I'm not sure if these were actual names or just distinguishing labels tacked on in a time before surnames were commonly used.

Thanks again.
Pete, I'm from Taiwan but live in the States now, that's why I'm unfamiliar with a lot of things of the West. Luckily there is the Internet, and thanks for you guys help.

Yes names are fascinating. I like the way the Irish are re-spelling gaelic names which have been anglicised....Murphy and Reilly come out looking quite different.

Here's a list http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/irenames.htm

Preece (Price), Pritchard and Pugh (Pew) are from the welsh ap Rhys, ap Richard and ap Hugh, did you know that?

Reply
yes, I had to read that book last year and it does originate from french: the D' means that someone is from a noble family or a family that is weathly, but the durbeyfield is just a plain farmer name.
D' to durbeyfield is her family's fall it is a foreshadowing in the book.