Explore the Family Name Bougie

The meaning of Bougie

1. Altered form of French Baugis, a very rare surname of unexplained etymology, or, alternatively, of Bougis, a habitational name from a place named Bougis (in Orne, Normandy). 2. In some cases possibly also French (mainly Brittany): metonymic occupational name for a candlemaker, from bougie ‘candle’, or, at least in Brittany, a variant of Bougis (see 1 above). History: Most, if not all, of the American bearers of the surname Bougie trace their origin to François Baugis from Vendée in Poitou, France, who married Denise Mercier in France c.1637 and died in QC after 1666. However, in Vendée and elsewhere in northwestern France only the surname Bougis is established, not Baugis, hence the progenitor’s original surname could well have been Bougis. Some characteristic forenames: French Laurent, Andre, Fernand, Normand, Pierre, Yvon.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.