Names from a 1587 Tax Roll from Provins

by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann)

© renewed 2017 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
© 2002 Sara L. Friedemann

The following are the names of about 150 men and women listed in a 1587 tax roll from Provins, a small city about 50 miles southeast of Paris. Because of its proximity to Paris, the dialect of French spoken in Provins was probably similar to that of Paris; it is interesting to compare the names found in this document with ones from the 1292 census of Paris and three early 15th century tax rolls from Paris. The names are ordered by gender, and then by frequency.

A few notes: By the 16th century, bynames in France were no longer used literally; rather, they had become fixed, inherited surnames, passed on from father to son. Therefore, a man named Jehan de Charlemaison would have this surname not because he lived at Charlemaison, but rather because his father's surname was Charlemaison. A couple of the surnames in the original source were rendered illegible by age and quality of the manuscript; these were reproduced as ellipses (...) in the source I was working from, and I have retained that notation.

Masculine Names by frequency

Feminine Names

Source: Carrìere, Abbé Victor, Role et Taxes des Fiefs de L'Arrière-Ban du Bailliage de Provins en 1587: avec une introduction sur le rétablissement et l'étendue de ce bailliage au XVI siècle (Paris: A. Picard et fils, éditeurs, Libraires de la Société de l'École des Chartes des Archives Nationales, 1903).