according to Robert Mermet
Searching for one's roots is not just a study of genealogy, it's also a study of the etymology of one's name, its geographical origin, and the sociological events that have taken place over the generations.
ETYMOLOGY
MERMET was originally a first name.
In Allèves, Savoie, an important family called "DAGAN", this name was originally written without a final "D", but from the 15th century onwards, we often see this name with a final "d".
For example, one of these Dagans was called Mermet. We find Latin texts where we have both the simple name and the name preceded by the first name, which in a sentence where the character is subject: MERMETUS DAGANUS, and where it's a complement MERMETI DAGANI, MERMETO DAGANO. The certainty that this is indeed a first name, and not a nickname as we'll find out later, comes from the fact that a text from the end of the 15th century gives this same word in the feminine form, and we have a MERMETA.
Dauzat, who didn't hesitate to invent what he didn't know, says that our name comes from "MARMOT" and would have been the nickname of a very short man. This is absurd. There are MERMOTs of MERMOZs, but that's just the disfigurement of a name by a clumsy scribe. I have, for example, a great-grand-aunt of my grandfather's, who was born MERMET, married MERMOZ, died MERMET. There are many such examples, and you need to be very careful when doing genealogical research. You have a MERMET grandfather, a MERMOZ great-grandfather, a MERMET great-great-grandfather. For example, in La Biolle, there's a COLET family (with 1 L), and at the beginning of the 17th century, children of this same family became COLLET (with 2 L). Then, two generations later, some descendants have a single L, others two Ls, meaning that the "COLETs" and the "COLLETs" have the same family tree, the same ancestors.
The Latinization of our name shows that it was originally MERMET with an "E" and a "T". E" and a "T".
The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that it's a diminutive of a first name; it could be the diminutive of the Latin form of GUILLAUME, which would have given GUILLERMET, the little William, or of the Germanic form WILHERMET. I'm leaning towards the Latin form in a country where the language was Romano-Provençal. LLERMET would have become MERMET. Other first names have been suggested as possible origins. In particular, a deformation of the name of Saint MAMERT has been proposed. To do this, the "R" would have to be moved and the "A" changed to an "E". This is no more in line with the usual rules of linguistics than transforming "LL" into "M". We have no chance of obtaining formal proof of the origin of this first name.
GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN
The origins of these names are to be found in the oldest documents, notarial deeds and, above all, parish deeds; we also have the census of 1561. It seems that in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, MERMETs were only found in Albanais, i.e. between Rumilly and Aix les Bains, but not including the latter town. At the time of the census, there were 15 households in the hamlets of Collonges, including :
- Jacquemoz MERMET, his three sons.
- Claude MERMET and his two sons.
- Etienne MERMET and his son.
- Pierre MERMET and his two sons.
- Jehan MERMET,at Alban le Vieux.
- aka MERMET Claude his nephew,at Claude de Collonges.
In Albens deeds, we find "de Collonges alias MERMET ", and it seems that "de Collonges" quickly disappears in favor of the MERMET surname alone.
Out of a population of 91, we had 36 adult males, 30 females, 9 male children, 16 daughters; there were 6 married MERMETs, 5 wives, one widow, 9 male children, 5 daughters, and therefore 26 MERMETs. Clearly, with 45 boys already fathers or fathers to be, the MERMET population was bound to be very large a few years later.
In this low mountain region, people moved easily from one village to another, within a radius of fifteen kilometers or so, and left their own village either to go and live with their wife's family, or to find another job, another piece of land to farm. As we don't find any other MERMETs in other Savoyard valleys in the 16th century, but we do find a demoiselle MERMET in Rumilly in the 14th century, mentioned in a seigniorial mandement, the geographical origin of our name seems to be the Albanais.
DISSEMINATION
The spread of our name is due to Savoyard emigration in the Middle Ages.
First, there was the spread of trade. Many Savoyards left their homelands for a season to sell produce, either locally produced or purchased in Piedmont or Provence, at fairs and markets in the Palatinate, Switzerland, Alsace, Lorraine and even as far as Champagne. These "mercators", as Jacquemoz MERMET called them in Collonges in 1561, left Savoy for the north, either via Switzerland, Franche-Comté or Jura. While many returned to their homeland, others stopped off en route and settled down, usually by marrying. In some genealogies, we find a natural child as the first ascendant.
The poverty of the Duchy of Savoy, compared to the wealth of the Kingdom of France, often led Savoyards to leave the country and join the workforce in industrial cities like Lyon.
Nor should we overlook the emigration triggered by Louise de Savoie's arrival in France when she became Queen of France.
It's also important to bear in mind that, as the land was poor, it usually went to the eldest member of the family, with the younger children seeking their fortunes elsewhere. Sharing the land would not have allowed large families to live. Of course, the MERMETs are no exception to these rules. So it's not unusual to find more of them in Jura, Franche-Comté and Lyon than in Savoie itself. They are also spread throughout the duchy itself. At the time of the census, there were no MERMETs in the parish of Déserts. So they came later to this poor valley.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the greatest emigration was to Lyon. At the end of the 19th century, after Savoy became part of France, emigration to France increased, as did emigration abroad, particularly to South America. Many MERMETs who became Argentineans had an ancestor who left the Maurienne at the end of the 19th century. Very often this emigration took place in family or friendship groups. Sometimes they left Savoie to join a relative or friend who had already settled there.
CONCLUSION
Until we have proof to the contrary, MERMET is the deformation of a first name, but we don't know which one, and the geographical origin is Albanian. However, it seems unlikely that we all have the same strain. Given the number of MERMETs in Collonges at the time of the census, it's certain that the number of descendants of these MERMETs, whose family ties we don't know, is very high. This, however, does not prove that all MERMETs are of the same strain.