The germain Surname

germain Name Meaning and History

French: from the Old French personal name Germain. This was popular in France, where it had been borne by a 5th-century saint, bishop of Auxerre. It derives from Latin Germanus ‘brother’, ‘cousin’ (originally an adjective meaning ‘of the same stock’, from Latin germen ‘bud’, ‘shoot’). In the Romance languages, especially Italian, the popularity of the equivalent personal name has been enhanced by association with the meaning ‘brother (in God)’, and in Spanish the cognate surname is derived from the vocabulary word meaning ‘brother’ rather than from a personal name. The feminine form, Germaine, which occurs as a place name in Aisne, Marne, and Haute-Marne, is associated with a late 16th-century saint from Provençal, the daughter of a poor farmer, who was canonized in 1867.
English: variant of German.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

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germain Family Facts

Distribution of germain Families in the US in 1920

Number of germain families

61-120

21-60

1-20

Compiled by Ancestry.com.au from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com.au’s US Federal Census Collection.

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Threads: 117 - Messages: 323

Thread	Author	Replies
GERMAIN'S of Buffalo NY	tinker451	12
Germains from Buffalo NY	dotsybee1	0
Germain's from Massachusetts	cketchumep	7
Germain in Sanilac Co., MI ca 1890	Bob Nichol	2
Isaac Germain (?-1936?) and Philip Germain (1920-1968), Oxford, Worcester, Massachusetts	cketchumep	2
Hannah Germain of Dutchess Co. NY	jaqby	2
Germain/St.Germain	carolbruner44	0
GERMAIN, Edward F. & family of Glen Cove, New York 1900's	D.Smith	16
germain geneology	Janice Anna Maria Cleven	5
st.germain in ma.	HAPPYHOMESIMP	0

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