LL-L "Names" 2005.05.10 (08) [E]

Tue May 10 22:19:51 UTC 2005

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: embryomystic at cogeco.ca <embryomystic at cogeco.ca>
Subject: Van Koughnett/VanConant

> From: Roger Thijs <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
> Subject: LL-L "Names" 2005.05.07 (04) [E]
>
> K/Coug(h)nett rather sounds related to romance languages.
> With the "van" preceeding one would think at first of a
> place name, but there is no municipality
> called "Cougnette" or something similar.
>
> 1. Herbillon, Dictionnaire des noms de famille en
> Belgique romane, 1996, has (without "van" preceeding):
>
> Cougnet, Coeugniet, Cognné, Cognet, Cognez:
> Surnom
> wallon: cougnès: coin (pour fendre ou caler) (Dictionnaire liégeois,
> Haust)
> éventuellement avec sens fig. (érotique?)
> Forme fém: 13e s. "Yde li Cognete" (Lens-sur-Dendre)
>
> Comments:
> coin in this sense is "wedge" in English.
> In Dutch: een "wig, spie"
> In my Limburgish "en kal" (fem.)
> Herbillon thinks it may be erotic in old name giving.
>
> 2. Place names in Belgium and Northern France
>
> 2.a France
>
> Closest is:
> COUGNY
> 58 Nièvre, comm. de Saint-Jean-aux-Amognes
> (in: Dictionnaire national des communes de France, 2001,
> Albin Michel)
>
> 2.b. Belgium
>
> Closest is:
> COUILLET
>
> former municipality, now part of Charleroi in Belgium
> "Culliacum ad Sabium" in 840 was part of the bishopric of
> Liège till 1796 (quartier "entre Sambre et Meuse") the
> church of the parish depended from the abbey of Lobbes
> last lordship family of the municipality (heerlijkheid)
> before 1796: Thibaut
> 1796-1814 part of the dépt. Jemappes (France)
> 1815-1830 part of the province Henegouwen -Hainaut (Netherlands)
> 1830-now: part of the province Hainaut (walloon part of Belgium)
>
> PS. Lens-sur-Dendre is also in Hainaut,
> Lendium in 900
> Carnoy gives the germanic "Linde" for etymology.
> "Dendre" is the river Dender, joining the "Schelde" river in Derndermonde
> (East-Flanders)
>
> Found nothing better.
> Hope this helps,
>
...
> The distribution of Cougnet in Belgium,
> Nr of families / province on Dec 31, 1987:
>
> 66    Liège
> 33    Luxembourg
> 9     Capital district of Brussels
> 8      Hainaut
> 4      Namur
> 0      in the other provinces

Thanks, Roger.

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Names
>
> Hi, Isaac, Roger, Lowlanders!
>
> I wonder if the above-mentioned names are related to the
> not uncommon English name Coin, supposedly a remnant from
> the Norman era.
...
> In the meantime I found that the surname Coin, Coyne,
> etc. (also derived as Coan and Cohn, the latter
> apparently unrelated to Jewish Cohn, Cohen, Kohen, etc.)
> is also found in England, Ireland, France and on the
> Channel Islands. There is also the surname group au Coin,
> Au Coin, Aucoin, etc., _au_ being "in/at the."
>
> Now here's the twist: if there was a line of Coin
> developed from Norman French, it must have "fused" with
> an Irish name:  Coyne, Coen, Cohen, Kyne, Kilcoyne,
> Coyney, Koyne, Koen, Kohen, M'Coyne, Coyn, Coin, Coine,
> Koin, Koine, apparently from Irish (Gaelic), occurring
> also in its English translation Barnacle, Barnicle,
> Barnycle, Barnackle, Barnicall, Barnickle, etc.  If this
> is true, your next task will be to figure out if you are a
> Norman French or Irish Coin!  And if this isn't confusing
> enough, there is also the possibility of the Jewish name
> Cohen, Kahn, etc. (denoting a special class of priests,
> the _kahan_, _kohanim_, and people with surnames derived
> from this source may not marry each other), having been
> changed into Coin ... (and it also fused with
> Irish-derived Cowan, not to mention coinciding with the
> German name Kahn ... as in Gabriele Kahn).

Funny you should mention the Irish Coins and the Jewish Cohens in the same
email. When I was applying for the job that I was working up until summer
layoff (a couple of weeks ago; it's a university cafeteria), the woman who
interviewed me was called Amy O'Coin. Since I'd been reading equal amounts
of material on Yiddish and Irish, and developing a what-if idea that has to
do with Irish Jews who speak a sort of Judeo-Irish (parallel to Yiddish and
Ladino), I connected the two names in my mind, and I mentioned it to my
Irish teacher. Isn't there a tendency in Yiddish for words of Hebrew origin
to change -ohe- into -oy-, or am I misremembering or misextrapolating from
mohel > moyl?

Now, on the subject of Van Koughnett, I've found a website (
http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/tree/ ) that says that Van Koughnett is a
variant of VanConant. She doesn't give any information on etymology that I
can find (her site is very heavy on graphics and popups and the like, so
searching it is difficult for me), but maybe that helps yiz help me? Where
might Van Conant take us?

Thanks,

Isaac M. Davis

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