Savoie
A regional surname from Savoy, the Alpine region on the France–Switzerland border.
The #6,071 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 54,626 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Savoie is a French surname formed from the place-name Savoie, the historic province in the western Alps. In surname use, it most likely identified someone who came from Savoy or had some other connection to that region. The underlying place-name is ancient and ultimately refers to the Savoy area itself rather than to a descriptive personal trait.
History
The name is especially associated with French-speaking regions and appears in surname lists as a straightforward regional byname. It is best known today through bearers in France, French Canada, and the United States, where the spelling often remains unchanged. In older French onomastic writing, it is treated simply as a surname meaning “from Savoy.”
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname preserves the name of the historic Duchy of Savoy, a region that once stretched across parts of modern France, Italy, and Switzerland.
From the historical record
“Baudoz. Dérivé de Baud ou abré- viation de Thibaud. La finale oz est particulière à la Savoie, à la Franche-Comté et à la Suisse ; 2» joyeux-hardi [baudos, oc). Nous re- trouvons ici le vieux sens germa- nique.”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)