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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French (western) : from a pet form of Martin 1.
  • English : habitational name from Martineau in France. The name was also taken to England by Huguenot refugees in the 17th century (see below).
  • Harriet Martineau (1802–76), the English writer, was the daughter of a Norwich manufacturer. She was descended from a family of French Huguenots who owned land around Poitou and Touraine in the 15th century. They included a number of surgeons in the 17th century. In the 19th century a branch of the family was firmly established in Birmingham, England; others went to North America.

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