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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : topographic name for someone who lived near a cross set up by the roadside or in the marketplace, from French la croix ‘the cross’ (Latin crux, crucis). In some cases the surname may have denoted one who carried the cross in church processions. Compare the English equivalent, Cross. It is a very frequent French Canadian secondary surname, perhaps for a person who swore by the cross, and has also been used independently since 1670.

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