GERMAINE Family History

Recorded as Delagua, Dugue, Duguet, Gue, and probably others, this is a French surname. It is cognate with the English word and surname 'Ford', being residential, and describing somebody who lived by a shallow river crossing, or who may have come from a town or village of the same name. The derivation is from the Roman (Latin) word 'aqua' meaning water. Residential surnames were amongst the first to be created, although in the case of French names we have a problem, in that the majority of early church registers in the country were destroyed during the famous Revolution of 1792.