The name "Jazzer"--(possibility of humorous French names)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated  Sat, 11 Oct 2003 14:09:13 -0500, Gerald Cohen
<gcohen at UMR.EDU> writes:

>     In order to judge whether Jazzer might derive from French jaseur,
>  it's necessary to get a clear idea about the humorous U.S. or
>  Canadian surnames of French origin. In other words, the surname might
>  not exist in France but be present on this side of the Atlantic.
>
>      One possible example: A man named Nicholas Beaugenou was born in
>  Canada, 1741, and eventually moved to St. Louis. Beaugenou is not
>  listed in Dauzat's dictionary of French names and is very possibly of
>  humorous origin; its literal meaning is "Beautiful Knee." Similarly,
>  there was a man named Beaupied ("Beautiful Foot").

Another possibility is that M. Beaugenou was a Native American, or perhaps a
meti, who really did have the Native American name "Beautiful Knee".  There
was a well-known contemporary of his, an Iroquois (Seneca) religious figure
named "Handsome Lake" (1735-1815),  so I suppose "Beautiful Knee" is plausible.

And don't forget a man named "Swollen Foot", better remembered as Oedipus
Rex.  ("oedi" cognate to "(o)edema", and "pus" as in "octopus").

        - James A. Landau
          systems engineer
          FAA Technical Center (ACB-510/BCI)
          Atlantic City Int'l Airport NJ 08405 USA