Family name origins & meanings
- English : from Old French Gascogne ‘Gascony’, hence a regional name. The name of the region derives from that of the Basques, who are found close by and formerly extended into this region as well; they are first named in Roman sources as Vascōnes, but the original meaning of the name, derived from a root eusk- in the non-Indo-European language that they still speak today, is completely obscure. By the Middle Ages the Basques had been displaced from most of Gascony by speakers of Gascon (a dialect of Occitan, related to French), who were proverbial for their boastfulness. In the 11th century Gascony united with Aquitaine and was thus held by England between 1154 and 1453. See Gascon.