Surnames in - -hardt, (h)art, -(h)ard, aert and -ardi : a Frankish origin ?

[Maciamo]

Modern tools such as surname maps by country are great to analyse the history of family names, discover patterns in geographic distributions, and perhaps even find surprising ways in which surnames are linked to ancient cultures, at the time when surnames didn't exist.

Surnames ending in -ard, -art or -aert are quite common in Belgium, both among French speakers and Flemish speakers. Many names exist on both sides of the linguistic border, with just a difference of spelling (-aert in Flanders).

A funny thing is that their frequency declines as one moves northward across the Netherlands, and southward to France. In France, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (historically part of the Low Countries) has about the same incidence of these names as Belgium. These names remain relatively common in Champagne and Lorraine (both adjacent to Belgium), but the percentage drops quickly further south. They are also common in Germany, especially in the Rhineland region (also adjacent to Belgium) and in Baden-Württemberg.

Overall the distribution tends of remind of the original Merovingian kingdom before the conquest of Gaul by Clovis.

Many of these surnames are derived from given names, either ending in -art/-ard themselves, or not (in that case the -ard/-art was added to a given name). Most of these names of typically Germanic, like Evrard/Ebraert/Eberhart (in French/Flemish/German), Gérard/Geraert/Gerhart, Léonard/Leenhard/Leonhard... Non-Germanic names were adapted accordingly, so that the French name Pierre becomes Pierard or Pirard, Jacques becomes Jacquart or Jacquemart, Jean becomes Jeanmart, Nicolas becomes Colard or Colart, etc.

Such names also exist in Italy (in -ardi or -arti), particularly in the north. Most are obviously of Germanic origin, like Bernardi, Gherardi, Leonardi...

[sparkey]

It seems to depend somewhat on the name as to which Germanic group was the most likely to have brought it. All of the examples you gave seem Frankish to me as well. A possible counterexample is Bouchard... a Germanic name, and a variant of Burkhart, that does not have a particularly Frankish distribution in France, per here. Bouchard has the -hard suffix and is more likely Burgundian.

Although I bet that if you combined all surnames with that suffix and mapped that, it would look awfully Frankish, at least in France and Belgium.

[Yetos]

lets see something from non Germanic,
Makedonian family name,
they were argeians, by they were named argei-ads we find -d
compare Bernar -> bernar-d or bernar-di
also lets see other names aristeides (aristeidis) ending ides (idis)
lets see Thracian tribal names many finish in -edi
I believe the ending in -d -t -di -dis means family, tribe, sons,
as -edi -edu ment nation,
comparing Greek -ides which is also connected with eth-(nos) nation
so Bernar-d or Leonar-d
agood analysis comes from the Greek name Leon-idas
Leon is lion but why idas?
by following fathers name it must be Leontiou but it is Leon-idas
cause means family, from the lions nation (tribe)

I personally believe that that -d in ending of surnames is declare family name in IE
example λεων leon a known name, as surname given by father, (ancient culture used father names in cities) it would be leon-t-os so leon-ti-ou(where that t came from?)
compare Greek and Cypriot and Romanian Francais Italian etc it will be
Leontiou Leontiou Leon(t)u Leon(t)eau Leontio
but the sons of leon are leon-ides (ides, edi, -di -d -t)
so it wil be
Leonides Leonaert etc

my point is that we must check except the end also the root of the name,
example Hector the troyan if lived in Germany his sons will carry family name (surname)
Hectoraert
in Greece Hectorides, in Italy Hectordi, etc
but Hector is from Troy

A good example is the ending -os
-os is very common in Greek, but it is also common in Hungarian, so ending -os can't not identify Greek or Hungarian
Like Beros and Barlos
Beros is after Roman vero with Greek ending -os
(compare patrokl-os)
Barlos has nothing to with GReek sur-names (only ending -os)

[Antigone]

Does anyone know if there is a specific meaning to the surname endings art, ard, aert etc?

Like the son, sen, sson endings in British and Scandanavian names all mean son of. Or the Scot/Irish/Welsh prefix Mac, Mag, Mc, Ap again son of, or the Irish O which means descendant of. The Cretan surname ending of akis and the Greek prefix Pappa also have specific meanings.

[Yetos]

the Norhern -son is consider scandinavic But it is also from IE and exist in ancient too but as degree

the ending -ikos -kos -ikas
it means the younger the junior or the small one,
mainly used when the son has the name of the father,
compare the N Greece and south
Father name is Giannis son is Giannakos in N Greeks
while is Giannakis in south Greeks
and giannikas in Pontic Greeks
the ending -akis is mainly status after Enetocracy and Francocracy when the -akos followed Italian sound and turn to -akis

so son of Johan is Hohan-son -sen In North
son Johan in Greek will be Johan-a- kos Johan-a- kis

compare with the Big one, -aras

so a normal degree is Johan
a big Johan in Greek will be Johan-ar-as (something like a title)
the family of a big Johan will be Johanard (surname of big Johan tribe or sons)
a small Johan or a Johan Junior or a young Johan will be Johan-akos (Johan-akis) and In Europe Johan-son

the ending in -akis is affected after 1200 in Greece due to ending -ache
the -ache is a similar ending in Italian endings
while the gaulish -rix is probably from a royalty title (rix reich reg-ina)

other ending like -as
-as is very common among Baltic people
ending -as in Greek has to do with Job
example the mule owner is Moular-as
the German Muller
the ending -as is not considered Greek cause then it will be -os or -is
at Greek linguists ending -as is considered that entered by Thracians
the only case that -as is not Considered Thracian is the case of Arkadia Peloponese,
it seems like that -eas has Doric form of Possessive case and after Father name
compare Μιχαλεας Νικολεας etc
Cretan Μιχαλιος Νικολιος -ios= -eas in more pure Doric form

example
σουρλας σουτσος σουλης
σου is after ottomans water,
so the water seller get surname after his job
in Greco-thracian it goes Sur-las σουρλας
in Latinocracy areas goes Sur+che σουτσος - σουτσης (crete su-r-akis)
in rest Greece goes Su+is Sulis σουλης
exception is some areas like Con/polis were it takes the Turkish endig- oglu Su-ts-oglu
or in Pontic Greeks it will be Su-n-oglu and in Smyrna Su-l-oglu

the before name
like
Greek pappa
Dutch Van
france Del
German Fon
Turkish Deli Kara (kara is Black)
Byzantine Kara (kara is Head - leader)
Byzantine-Roman kata Gaeto
are probably titles, or origin (city or area name or tribe name)
example

Δελλαπορτας Del-la-port
means officer of the Gate,
κατεπανος Γαϊτανος (katepano -gaetano)
means supreme officer (something like colonel)
But Italian Del Pierro I think means from Pierro (city? area? family name?)



(compare byzantine katepanos with british captain spanish capitan and later Greek kapetanios)

Part 2

now back to Johan,
so the young or the son of Johan will be Johanson

Now following the old rule of surnames
,y name is Johan
my family calls me Johanson
but when a same city man ask me who am I? I will answer
Johan Johanou or Johan Johanu or Joahn Johaneau or Johan Johanov (Johanof)
if my father is also Johan
that is because in the same city or tribe someone must give 2 names to declare,
compare I am Johan son of Johan (Ιωαννης Ιωαννου)
fathers name in possessive case
compare Adam Adam's ->Adam Adams

now the old ruled say that abroad must have either city name either tribal name
so if I live in Berlin i will be Johan the Berliner
compare Ξενοφων Αθηναιος

the tribe in Thracian is -edi in Greek is ethn-os so we see a -d a -θ
comparing english we see a -t na-t-ion
so my tribe's name Leon my people are Leonides λεωνιδες
so when i say that I am one of the leonides I must say I am a Leonidis (λεωνιδης)
that makes me Johan of Leonides ->Johan Leonidis

but that -edi -ides is LPIE of around Balcans
but it must survive in other IE languages also cause it is much ancient that identity papers,

so it goes as -rt (-t) in west Europe etc


lets compare with Slavic

here we see mostly father name as family name,
Johan Johanov or Johanoff
special case is Serbian were we see an -ic
Johan Johan-ov-ic
possibly follows the rule one of the Johanov and goes Johanovic but I am not certain

also something that I can find connection is Baltic -onis
while Baltic -as could mean job or 'Big' one as -r-as
at least as it explain by Greek
mule ->mularas (muller = Μουλαρας)
Johan the 'mighty' ->Johanas Johana-ras (Γιανναρας)


the -rix case
probably IE title
in Germanic could be translated as reich
also in roman we see the reg-ina

[edao]

-ard

a suffix forming nouns that denote persons who regularly engage in an activity, or who are characterized in a certain way, as indicated by the stem; now usually pejorative: coward; dullard; drunkard; wizard. source

"who are characterized in a certain way" I suppose it could have migrated into family names Gerr-ard of the Gerrs
Don't know if this applies to French as well?

[zanipolo]

Does anyone know if there is a specific meaning to the surname endings art, ard, aert etc?

Like the son, sen, sson endings in British and Scandanavian names all mean son of. Or the Scot/Irish/Welsh prefix Mac, Mag, Mc, Ap again son of, or the Irish O which means descendant of. The Cretan surname ending of akis and the Greek prefix Pappa also have specific meanings.

you mean this type

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronymic

You would know about opolous , which seems to be in the pelopenesse , meaning son of
vic endings in orthodox serbs slavs means son of
ic in catholic croats ...unsure

Names are odd, that the surname ending in otto in NE italy, they appear in veneto and friuli and I was told they are a part of the 3 Holy Roman Emperors ( maybe servants or personel guards) around 1000AD, yet lombardy which was ruled by the same HRE has otti at the end of many surnames.
In central and southern italy , its usually ends in ini.

Then there's
de meaning of, which is Spanish and french are used in areas ruled by these nations, but italy has Da for a place .....Leonardo da Vinci and di in Tuscany and other non french/spanish italian areas and means son of. In the Veneto and friuli instead of di they have d'
In portugal they usually have do , but some areas use de

[Maciamo]

It seems to depend somewhat on the name as to which Germanic group was the most likely to have brought it. All of the examples you gave seem Frankish to me as well. A possible counterexample is Bouchard... a Germanic name, and a variant of Burkhart, that does not have a particularly Frankish distribution in France, per here. Bouchard has the -hard suffix and is more likely Burgundian.

Although I bet that if you combined all surnames with that suffix and mapped that, it would look awfully Frankish, at least in France and Belgium.

Bouchard is also found in Belgium under different spellings: Bouchard, Bouchart, Bouchat, Bouckaert... Bouchat and Bouchart exist in France, but once again along the Belgian border. There are only about 3000 people named Bouchard in France, which is less than the Bouckaert + Bouchat in Belgium. There are also over 3500 Bekaert in Belgium, which could be a variant pronunciation too.

Flemish names also have plenty of names ending in -aerts (Lenaerts, Bogaerts, Bernaerts...), but these are just variants of names without the "s" at the end.

[Maciamo]

Does anyone know if there is a specific meaning to the surname endings art, ard, aert etc?

Like the son, sen, sson endings in British and Scandanavian names all mean son of. Or the Scot/Irish/Welsh prefix Mac, Mag, Mc, Ap again son of, or the Irish O which means descendant of. The Cretan surname ending of akis and the Greek prefix Pappa also have specific meanings.

The (h)art, -(h)ard, aert endings come from German "hard" (same meaning as in English). The usage though is very similar to the -son/-sen in Scandinavian countries (+ Danelaw in England).

French names in -mart (Wilmart, Gilmart, Jeanmart, Jamart...) are probably spelt -mar in German (a suffix meaning "famous").

[Antigone]

Ah, thanks for the explanations Maciamo, Zanipolo, Edao and Yetos.

Fascinating subject.

I don't suppose the art, ard, aert endings are too disimilar from the old Anglo/Saxon prefix or suffix of bert, meaning bright?

[MOESAN]

The (h)art, -(h)ard, aert endings come from German "hard" (same meaning as in English). The usage though is very similar to the -son/-sen in Scandinavian countries (+ Danelaw in England).

French names in -mart (Wilmart, Gilmart, Jeanmart, Jamart...) are probably spelt -mar in German (a suffix meaning "famous").

I agree for the first wave of names in -hard (>>-aert,- ard, -art) all of them personal names of western germanic origin, that became very common in France since the victorious coming of the Franks - 'hard' is common in every modern germanic language with the meaning of "hard" but it had too the meaning of "strong" - apart Brittany and the Basque region, germanic personal names became the most common surnames in France even in latin speaking populations (the huge majority) and also as the germanic origin people was the rulers, the nobility in Western Europe, there names became common enough even in countries as Catalunia, Spain, Italy & Corsica -
but after that, this ending 'hard' pronounced '-ard' became a common suffixe in french bearing, a pejorative meaning (no more any signification of 'force' or 'hardness'), giving way to a lot of common lexical words ('culard', 'cabochard', 't�tard/testard' ...) and by it to new personal names with no germanic meaning at all (Couillard, B�tard/Bastard, Cochard, Coquard, Pissard, Rouillard...) - in France, the success of these "noble" germanic names gave way also to other endings being adopted as variant to previous latin endings ('-wald' >> '-ault'/'-auld'/'-aut'/-aud'/ taking the place of the diminutives '-ot', '-eau'...

an -d is not an independant suffixe but the ending of the previous germanoc word '-hard'