MovieChat Forums > Le retour de Martin Guerre (1983) Discussion > Evidently 'Guerre' means 'war' in french

Evidently 'Guerre' means 'war' in french


I just noticed today in French class that the word "guerre" means war. I asked my professor about it (who is French), and she thought it was strange that someone's last name was War. I know that he came from a war and everything, but it still seems like an odd choice for a name. Anybody with any French background know of any context or connotations that I am missing out on, 'cause it just seems strange.

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Mt family name is "Warre" and is reputed to be of Norman origin.

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It's actually a true story, Martin Guerre. I once read about it, and if I remember correctly, his real name was Daguerre, but his family changed it when they moved from one place to another. Why they did it, I don't know.

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Interestingly a later Daguerre was the inventor of the daguerreotype process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerre

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I have no french knowledge, but his name is true enough, I'm studying history and we just read a book by Natalie Zemon Davis about the true french court story (primary source for the story is the account writteh by Coras and saw this movie.

Anyway about his name here is a short quote from wiki:
"He was born as Martin Daguerre around 1524 in the Basque town of Hendaye. In 1527, his family moved to the Pyrenean village Artigat in southwestern France, where they changed their name to Guerre". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Guerre

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And a french person would think that Butt would be a strange last name.

It's a really story so there's no secret meaning behind his name. If his last name was Smith we would have all watched Le Retour de Martin Smith.

http://www.nom-de-famille.com/nom-guerre/guerre.html

According to that site, the last name Guerre is the 2788th most popular name in France. Not bad for a country of 60 million. I certainly wouldn't mind having a last name like War.

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I do a bit of genealogy, its very common for people to change their name slightly over time

Jean de Cleves becomes john Cleves etc...you have to remember that most peolep werent literate at that time so the only scribes were priests and lawyers. Ones slight error or local interpretation of a name would change the way future generations read and thus pronounced names.

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philgreg-1: "its very common for people to change their name slightly over time. Jean de Cleves becomes john Cleves etc..."

Yes, and when they change region or country it occurs even more: E.g. (Walt) Disney 's lastname coming from D'Isigny (from a normand village) comes to mind or (Franklin) Delano (Roosevelt) coming from the French lastname Delanoƫ (sometimes Delanoue; it means something like "from the swampy pasture").

(Shia) LaBeouf also obviously comes from the French lastname Leboeuf (=the ox), that was distorted.

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Yes it does. I studied French for 4 years. Why should it be weird? There are Italian last names that mean battle or blueberry in English. I even met a guy once whose French last name is DeRouville which in English means "the main road." His ancestors in France must have lived on a main road and chose that last name. Usually "de" means from. It's normal if you consider the history of last names. This movie is based on a true story so I am not suprised at Martin's last name. I read the book in a college history class and we watched the movie as well, it teaches you a lot about the time period. Which is good for me because I am a history major.



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I suppose that many French (and Italian, etc.) names are old names, and derive from a time when war was considered to be a noble , grand, patriotic venture, and if nothing else the chance to get some plunder. But nowadays war is not seen in that light, so it just seems like a very derogatory, or at least confrontational name.

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There is also a French tradition of changing your name when you go to fight. You adopt a 'nom de guerre' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonym). There is a reference to a 'nom de guerre' in 'Twenty Years After' by Alexandre Dumas.


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i know you posted this a long time ago so it seems weird if i reply now but anyway. before you state something, make sure its correct. im french and i can tell you that derouville does not mean the main road. it means nothing, the only word that appears in derouville is ville and ville means city. just thought i'd let you know.

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Yeah, I was about to say the same thing. I'm fluent in French and "Rouville" is meaningless. It contains part of the word for road ("route"), as well as the word for city ("ville") but it certainly doesn't mean "maind road."

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Guerra means war in Spanish and its a common last name in Spanish speaking countries



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Martin Guerre's family name was originally Daguerre.The family changed it into Guerre to blend into the french society,their original name was clearly basque,while Guerre sounded more french.His uncle changed even his forename,so his name went from Betrisantz Daguerre to Pierre Guerre.

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