Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I think the surname would be Noel…

What's In Kay's Mind?: Leon Riley ~ Eril Yelon ~ Eril Y Elon something like that…

http://noel.mcn.org/

The surname name 'Noël', which may have originally meant a person from Noailles (no-ay) and not Christmas (however the given name of Noël does refer to Christmas in most cases), is believed to have origins in the Gallic tribes of Normandy in the north of France.  These people held vast estates in the Duchy of Noailles, Oise, France that dated prior to the 11th Century.  In Normandy, the scion of the family generally adopted his domain name as his own surname so the nobility were the de Noailles. Whatever the common form may have been, the de prefix was dropped by attrition when the people moved from the area and their surname progressively changed with Nouelle (Noalha) as one form.  Since the mass of people were not literate, this may have been done by the priests who recorded the baptisms in French, German or Latin.  The English could not even handle this pronunciation and it was changed to Noel ( pronounced as Noll ). When the Noëls' (pronounced as no-elle) came from France to English America in the sixteen and seventeen hundreds the English recorded the Noel form.   As we see in France and French Canada the Noël form is used.

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