Bourgeois
A French surname meaning “townsman” or “citizen,” originally used for someone belonging to the burgher class.
The #2,705 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,170 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bourgeois is from Old French bourgeois, meaning “citizen” or “townsman,” especially a member of the urban middle class. It ultimately goes back to bourc/bourg, “town” or “borough,” from a Germanic word for a fortified place. In surname use, it likely began as a social label for someone identified with a town rather than the countryside.
History
The name is common in French-speaking areas and also appears widely in places influenced by French naming. Historical surname writers often treated it as a class-based name rather than a profession in the strict sense. Related forms and spellings are found across French dialects and in variant surnames derived from bourg.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older French social terms, a bourgeois was not just a “middle-class” person in the modern sense, but specifically a resident citizen of a town with recognized rights.
From the historical record
“journeyman printer, Franklin visited this country as a kind of diplomatic BOURGEOIS (old STYLe). Although the printing-office in which Franklin worked is no more, the Press has been preserved. Thirty years after he had been engaged as a journeyman printer, Franklin visited this country as a kind of diplomatic…”
— Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in IrelandNotable people named Bourgeois
- Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010)
- Léon Bourgeois (1851–1925)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.