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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Northern French : occupational name for a maker of purses and leather wallets, from an agent derivative of Old French bourse ‘purse’, Late Latin bursa, whence also Old English purs (see Purser).
  • A bearer of this surname from the Saintonge region of France is recorded in Montreal in 1673, with the secondary surname Lavigne.

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