# Etymology of French surnames starting with "Capde-" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303 "2005-12-19T15:55:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/1 "2005-12-19T15:55:37Z")
There is a small subset of French surnames beginning with the letters _Capde-_ (e.g. Capdeville, Capdebosq). It’s easy to pick out the “deville” of Capdeville as meaning “of the town” (cf. English _-ton_). I can assume that the “de” in Capdebosq also means “of (something)”. But from where does the initial “Cap-” derive? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/2 "2005-12-19T16:19:48Z")
Head of - as a peninsular, so a geographic rather than political meaning. A sort of Top of the Town, Top of the Woods type thing. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/3 "2005-12-19T16:25:35Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > Head of - as a peninsular, so a geographic rather than political meaning. A sort of Top of the Town, Top of the Woods type thing. Ah … so the surname may well be older than the French consonantal shift that turned many initial c’s to _ch_ (e.g. _chat, château, chapeau_, etc.). Google did turn up that _bosq/bosq_ is a Southern French (Occitan? Provençal?) version of the Standard French _bois_ (woods). Didn’t know that this morning. One question leads to another – do most French words that end in _-q_ come from a Southern French dialect? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/4 "2005-12-19T17:01:01Z")
Can’t answer that I’m afraid but it would seem logical, _bosco_ is Italian and the Savoy kingdom took in parts of what are now France and Italy. However the first French ‘cap’ example which sprung into my head was ‘Cap Gris Nez’ which is (IIRC) in the North on the English Channel/La Manche. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/5 "2005-12-19T21:11:05Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Ah … so the surname may well be older than the French consonantal shift that turned many initial c’s to _ch_ (e.g. _chat, château, chapeau_, etc.). “Cap” is still a French word. I’m not certain about why the palatalization of “ca” in French wasn’t completely thorough, except that when you look at other Romance languages, the palatalization of “ce” and “ci” is a much stronger Romance trait, while palatalization of “ca” is comparatively rarer. Alternatively, “cap” might be a fairly recent borrowing from some other Romance language. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/6 "2005-12-19T21:24:31Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > “Cap” is still a French word. What fooled me was the final “p”. Isn’t that pretty rare in standard French spelling (as opposed to pronunciation)? On second thought, I believe _loup_ (wolf) is good French, actually. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/7 "2005-12-19T21:30:04Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > On second thought, I believe _loup_ (wolf) is good French, actually. Well, gee, there’s also _coup_, too. I guess it’s not super rare … maybe prportionally infrequent. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/8 "2005-12-19T22:04:11Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Well, gee, there’s also _coup_, too. I guess it’s not super rare … maybe prportionally infrequent. My French ain’t great, but I’ve never noticed that words ending in “p” are at all uncommon. It’s the ones that end in “q” that freak me out. “Cinq”? “Coq”? What the fuck are you trying to pull with that shit? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/9 "2005-12-19T22:17:22Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > My French ain’t great, but I’ve never noticed that words ending in “p” are at all uncommon. It’s the ones that end in “q” that freak me out. “Cinq”? “Coq”? What the fuck are you trying to pull with that shit? 😃 That’s a good one … why _avec_ and not _aveq_? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-french-surnames-starting-with-capde/336303/10 "2005-12-19T22:18:37Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > My French ain’t great, but I’ve never noticed that words ending in “p” are at all uncommon. Well … you know how words that start with Q and X in English are in smaller proportion that words that start with S and D? Like that. Not rare like “words ending in -gry”.