I have taken up the confusion about the French proper last name Sauvage in Michigan's Habitant Heritage, Vol. 34, #1 – January 2013, 20-24.   “'But I read it …'  The 17 June 1697 Baptism Record at Champlain for Marie Sauvage, Daughter of Jacques Sauvage and Catherine Jean: When is a Sauvage not a sauvage or a sauvagesse?”  I have just completed another article that asks the same question concerning another member of this family. The French used the general word sauvage and its feminine form, sauvagesse, when they did not have a more precise term for the Nation of the Native American individual, such as Ottawa, Huron, Potawatomi, etc.   Originally, the name was derived from the Latin word for forest.  ÉTYMOLOGIE Berry et bourg, sauvaige ; wallon, sâvag ; provenç. salvatge, salvage ; esp. salvage ; port. salvagem ; ital. selvaggio ; du lat. silvaticus, de silva, forêt, le même que le grec, bois. {Émile Littré: Dictionnaire de la langue française (1872-77)} From Latin silvaticus, de silva, forest, the same as the Greek, woods.  The name of the U. S. State of Pennsylvania translates as Penn's Woods. English speakers translated French sauvage as savage, and all the negative connotations followed.  French Sauvage can mean "wild" as in wild flowers or other natural growth untamed by a gardener, and it also carries the idea of uncultivated or uncivilized; but , because of warfare on the American continent, it also began to include the aspect of "wild" meaning violent.   Present in the New France colony, however, were several families with the French proper last name of Sauvage.  This last name is documented to at least the 16th century in France and has nothing to do with Native Americans. See Fichier Origine for several of the Sauvage families from France:  http://www.fichierorigine.com/ Never translate someone else's proper last name, even though some distant cousins of mine found it useful to translate the last name Boivin into Drinkwine in the U. S. colonies!  That was their choice.  And, please, do not translate Laframboise as Raspberry, as I have seen done on some web charts.  Almost every "foreign" name has within it a distinct meaning in the language of origin, even English with its Smiths, Porters, Clerks, Woods, Forest, etc. Suzanne ----- Original Message ----- From: dhazvt@aol.com To: quebec-research@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 3:34:17 PM Subject: [Q-R] Marriage Francois Cassie and Marie Louise Sauvage Francois and Marie Louise were married 20 Nov 1740 There were married at Trois Rivieres,Montmorency,Quebec,Canada I have seen her parents listed as Francois Wild and Marie Louise Mouet. Does anyone know why Sauvage is given as her last name? Thanks, Dot