Family name origins & meanings
- French : from barbeau ‘barbel’, a type of fish, hence a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman, or a nickname for a man with a sparse beard, the fish being distinguished by beardlike growths on either side of its mouth.
- French : nickname from a derivative of Old French, Occitan barbel ‘point’, ‘tooth’.
- French : A Barbeau from the Poitou region of France is documented in Quebec city, in 1669 with the secondary surname Laforest. Another, from the Saintonge region, is recorded in Boucherville, Quebec, in 1686 with the secondary surname Boisdoré. A third, from the Poitou region, is documented in Lachenaie, Quebec, in 1690 with the secondary surname Poitevin.