----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Day" royday@dial.pipex.com To: <HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 10:08 PM Subject: Re: [HWE] The spirit of King Hugo | | On Saturday, December 16, 2000 7:02 PM luc chaput wrote | | According to my French dictionnaries the term huguenot comes from | eyguenet | which is an alteration of german Eidgenossen , name given to the Geneva | people in league against the duke of Savoie. Luc | | On 14 décembre, 2000 12:48 I wrote | | >The assemblies of the Protestants of Tours took place at night in a tower | >haunted, it was said, by a spirit called King Hugo. This took place in | the | >middle of the 16th century and is supposedly how the name Huguenot came | to | >be. | >Does anybody have any further information? | Both of the above are listed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica as possible derivations of the word Huguenots. My source actually states the word to be aignos and not eyguenet as mentioned above but that is a detail. What puzzles me is who actually invented the word as it does not appear to have been used by the French? When and where was the word Huguenots first used? If it came from the Geneva based definition then the name would not have come in to normal usage until some considerable time after 1525. At or before this time there were families with the name Huguenot living in several parts of France. Could another possible, and maybe more logical explanation, be that some of the first converts carried this name? Roy