CONVER - origin of the name
Posted: 01 Aug 2019, 15:20
I found an old USB stick with all sorts of snippets that I noted down at the time on the Tarot. It's like finding a lost treasure box or a photo album the contents of which had been long forgotten.
Anyway, I found this on the origin of the name CONVER (as in Nicolas Conver). I'll copy/paste it as I found it. I don't know whether it's something I translated once from a geneology website or if someone sent it to me. As it was new to me at the time or else I probably wouldn't have kept it, I'm thinking it may also be news for other people.
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The name, or rather nickname, Convert/Convers/Conver comes from around the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century, at the time of the formation of hereditary names, due to the religious “behaviour” of the person. The old French verb "convert", derived from the Latin "convertere" (to turn towards), meant "to turn, to change religion", the term "convers" meant "action of turning turn, change, conversion", the adjective "convers" had the meaning of "who turned to the service of God". The nickname "li convert" referred to a man of Jewish or Muslim faith who had converted to the Christian religion. It is this social and religious peculiarity that allowed his contemporaries to differentiate him and give him his nickname.
The physical aspect, customs and the behaviour of people allowed for the creation of many nicknames which, later, became surnames. These nicknames were always attributed by the entourage, never chosen by the parties themselves and that they were often “in the face”. One can imagine someone being identified in the administrative documents by the mention "Jehannes dit li convert" (John the convert). The conversion is the origin of the surnames Convers and Convert and Conver. According to Marie-Thérèse Morlet, this name was first mentioned in the Acts of Provins in 1297. As an aside: In the Middle Ages, Jews who converted to the Christian religion generally did so more out of social convenience, to have peace, rather than by religious conviction. The pressure on the Jews was very strong. Jewish babies were even kidnapped to baptise them by force.
A few words of history will allow you to understand the context in which the name CONVERT has evolved. As early as the fifth century, after the Roman period that had brought the model of multiple names (Caesar was called Julius Caius Caesar), triumphant Christianity, like the German Franks, imposed the system of the unique name. By attributing a new name on the day of baptism such as Bernard, Louis or Victor, the Christians wanted to mark a break with the ancient world and symbolise the entry into a new world. From now on, our distant ancestors bore only one and only name, the one they received on the day of their baptism.
After five centuries of this practice, the unique name will come up against many problems of homonymy due to unprecedented demographic growth. Indeed, during this period of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries where names were formed, the population tripled from 5 to 15 million inhabitants. When a majority of people had the same names, the choice was limited to the most illustrious names, especially those of the saints, so it is easy to imagine why the unique name system shattered.
To counteract these homonyms, our ancestors naturally resorted to the nicknames, that is to say that a qualifying addition to the name of baptism comes to specify the identity. Thus Bernard became Bernard the Great, Louis the Pious, Victor of the Mount or Bertrand the Bearded. These nicknames were derived either from the physical aspect of the person, such as "the baldor his job "the baker” or simply they expressed a continuity of baptismal name as Michelin for Michel.
Why did the nickname CONVERT become a family name? You must know that this nickname first was given to a man but then his whole "household". This name of your ancestors then became fixed, it was the house of "CONVERT". And in the administrative acts, the tax records, which are at the origin hereditary transmission, the scribes noted the identity of the individual, by the mention of the type "Jacobus filius Jehanni dict convert" (Jacques son of John), then for short "Jacobus Convert", which meant the "son of". The nickname of the father becomes hereditary. In France, there are still a few thousand people who have this name.
Anyway, I found this on the origin of the name CONVER (as in Nicolas Conver). I'll copy/paste it as I found it. I don't know whether it's something I translated once from a geneology website or if someone sent it to me. As it was new to me at the time or else I probably wouldn't have kept it, I'm thinking it may also be news for other people.
*************
The name, or rather nickname, Convert/Convers/Conver comes from around the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century, at the time of the formation of hereditary names, due to the religious “behaviour” of the person. The old French verb "convert", derived from the Latin "convertere" (to turn towards), meant "to turn, to change religion", the term "convers" meant "action of turning turn, change, conversion", the adjective "convers" had the meaning of "who turned to the service of God". The nickname "li convert" referred to a man of Jewish or Muslim faith who had converted to the Christian religion. It is this social and religious peculiarity that allowed his contemporaries to differentiate him and give him his nickname.
The physical aspect, customs and the behaviour of people allowed for the creation of many nicknames which, later, became surnames. These nicknames were always attributed by the entourage, never chosen by the parties themselves and that they were often “in the face”. One can imagine someone being identified in the administrative documents by the mention "Jehannes dit li convert" (John the convert). The conversion is the origin of the surnames Convers and Convert and Conver. According to Marie-Thérèse Morlet, this name was first mentioned in the Acts of Provins in 1297. As an aside: In the Middle Ages, Jews who converted to the Christian religion generally did so more out of social convenience, to have peace, rather than by religious conviction. The pressure on the Jews was very strong. Jewish babies were even kidnapped to baptise them by force.
A few words of history will allow you to understand the context in which the name CONVERT has evolved. As early as the fifth century, after the Roman period that had brought the model of multiple names (Caesar was called Julius Caius Caesar), triumphant Christianity, like the German Franks, imposed the system of the unique name. By attributing a new name on the day of baptism such as Bernard, Louis or Victor, the Christians wanted to mark a break with the ancient world and symbolise the entry into a new world. From now on, our distant ancestors bore only one and only name, the one they received on the day of their baptism.
After five centuries of this practice, the unique name will come up against many problems of homonymy due to unprecedented demographic growth. Indeed, during this period of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries where names were formed, the population tripled from 5 to 15 million inhabitants. When a majority of people had the same names, the choice was limited to the most illustrious names, especially those of the saints, so it is easy to imagine why the unique name system shattered.
To counteract these homonyms, our ancestors naturally resorted to the nicknames, that is to say that a qualifying addition to the name of baptism comes to specify the identity. Thus Bernard became Bernard the Great, Louis the Pious, Victor of the Mount or Bertrand the Bearded. These nicknames were derived either from the physical aspect of the person, such as "the baldor his job "the baker” or simply they expressed a continuity of baptismal name as Michelin for Michel.
Why did the nickname CONVERT become a family name? You must know that this nickname first was given to a man but then his whole "household". This name of your ancestors then became fixed, it was the house of "CONVERT". And in the administrative acts, the tax records, which are at the origin hereditary transmission, the scribes noted the identity of the individual, by the mention of the type "Jacobus filius Jehanni dict convert" (Jacques son of John), then for short "Jacobus Convert", which meant the "son of". The nickname of the father becomes hereditary. In France, there are still a few thousand people who have this name.