Turgeon
A French surname most often understood as an occupational name connected with a barber-surgeon or surgeon.
The #8,999 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,937 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Turgeon is generally treated as a French surname tied to an old occupational term for a surgeon or barber-surgeon. The excerpt you provided links it with “barber-turgeon,” which fits the historical world of medieval and early modern surgery as a craft closely associated with barbering. The exact word history is not fully settled from this single citation, so the safest reading is that the surname arose from a professional designation in French-speaking regions.
History
The name is best known in French Canada and other francophone communities, where it has long been established as a hereditary surname. Because the provided source is only an incidental mention, it does not by itself document the surname’s full development, but it does support the idea of an old occupational origin. In North America, Turgeon is especially associated with Quebec and later French-Canadian migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old profession behind names like this was not limited to surgery in the modern sense; barber-surgeons often handled minor operations, bloodletting, and wound care.
From the historical record
“And HuTT haberdaalier at tlie Borne; Aad OUver the djer at the Thonu ; And Bernard, barber-turgeon at the Fiddle ; And Hoae*, marchaat-tailorat the Needle." The following Dames are probably derived from this source :”
— English Surnames: an essay on family nomenclature (4th ed.)