Re: crusaders

In a message dated 2/2/2006 4:26:28 AM Pacific Standard Time,

But that is the surname Turk - is Turcott the same surname? I don't
really see that is has to be - it looks rather as if its origin is an
English place-name. I don't know of any place called Turcott or Turcote
or something like that, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't one.
-cott and -cote are common place-name elements (meaning 'cottage(s)

Take it the next step.
The name rather than being Turc-cott, might be Tur-cott
So the first element wouldn't be related to "Turk" at all.

Nathaniel Taylor...

I don't see the message to which this replies (that d*** gateway again,
I suppose), but I thought we laid this to rest. Given the appearance of
Middle-English roots in the form 'Turcotte', I was initially skeptical,

Nathaniel Taylor...

I meant, given the appearance of *what looked like* Middle English roots
(specifically '-cotte' or '-cote') ... I am satisfied that 'Turcotte'
is NOT composed of Middle English roots.

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:

my children's 17th-century American immigrant ancestors:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/immigrantsa.htm

but I am satisfied that 'Turcot' is French, not an English, surname, and
appears to derive in a linguistically plausible route with '-ot' as a
diminutive or familiar accretion to the epithet 'le Turc' or simply
'Turc', which is certainly related to 'Turks' in some way, though there
is not enough information as to its meaning to claim that the initial
user of the name must have been a crusader (or a Turk!). I think there
is general evidence that epithets of this type were often used for
people with dark hair or complexion (or red, etc.) but who were not
necessarily exogenous to a local population.

Holders of the surname in the US are (perhaps exclusively) of Quebecois
origin. The name (in all logical variants) is not on the radar in Great
Britain in 1881 (not among the top thousand surnames, at least), and it
does not appear in Reaney-Wilson; on the other hand, it is well attested
in France, with a specific geographic concentration in the Vendee (west
coast between Nantes & La Rochelle), suggesting a coherent shared source.

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:

my children's 17th-century American immigrant ancestors:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/immigrantsa.htm