Any French speakers about?

[BeyondApproach]

My French is quite rusty and google translate has translated it but it just doesn't make sense (or maybe my English is no better than my French 😁)

Can someone translate this for me?

La graphie "Surname1 Surname2" est réservée par tradition familiale au porteur du titre de duc Surname2, soit une personne par génération, toutes branches généalogiques confondues, ainsi qu'à son épouse, la duchesse Surname2.

Ja toot de la fruit!

The spelling "Surname1 Surname2" is reserved by family tradition for the bearer of the title of Duke Surname2, i.e. one person per generation, all genealogical branches combined, as well as for his wife, the Duchess Surname2.

This is what comes up if you use Google Translate. Does it mean anything?

As I said, I've already tried google translate and that translation makes little sense to me, but maybe that's more because I can't grasp the concept rather than the translation being incorrect haha.

all genealogical branches combined - that's the bit that's confusing me

@BeyondApproach i didn't read your op properly

I think it might be confusing to me because it refers to French nobility and I sometimes find it hard to understand the British royal family and titles and names and stuff.

No worries, I appreciate your help anyway!

Hee hee, reminds me of this

Roughly I read this as the Duke and Duchess would be known by a double-barrelling or combination of their surnames - eg the English Royal equivalent of Mountbatten-Windsor. Not technically for 'one person' but will occur with one union per generation and combine the historical family names of both. (Hence the combining genealogy bit)

It's just the French classic of making a description far more elaborate than needs be.

I would rather translate it as "all genealogical branches included", which makes more sense to me.

It could be like this, for example, Father Dubois de Haricot, Duke of Haricot, has two sons. Eldest son is gets the full surname Dubois de Haricot, and will one day be Duke of Haricot. In each generation that follows him, the eldest son is a Dubois de Haricot, the younger ones just Dubois. Meanwhile, Father's second son has the surname Dubois and can only pass this on to his offspring, and none of them can use Haricot as their surname. Does this make sense?

This is how I would have read it too I think.

that is a better translation I think.

I was thinking it's the equivalent of a title such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex except the title happens to be two surnames? Does that make sense in French nobility?

The thing is that I was actually googling someone I used to know (inspired by the thread on the double-barrelled surnames). Except it was a woman and she wasn't married (early 20's when I knew her). There's also a slight discrepancy in how surname2 was spelt, but when I googled, wiki (in French) is all I could come up with.

I would translate it as:

The family tradition is that the spelling surname 1 surname 2 is only used by the duke surname 2. Ie only one person (and their wife Dutchess surname 2) per generation across all of the branches of the family

The reason I recalled her is because apparently when you have d'surname or de surname in French, they're usually nobility and to have a double barrelled surname (both of which have a d'surname), then they're super posh. It came up because I was chatting to her boss about her one day and I must have said something to the effect that she appears to come from wealth and/or class and he gave me that explanation (as a subtle way of saying - your assumption is correct).

The surname is very outing or I'd link the article. I can pm it to those of you who understand the French system? Curiosity is getting to me lol.

Unless you have reason to believe that your friend is French royalty I think that the two are separate.

this passage relates to a family tradition regarding their surname, it doesn’t proclie other people having a similar name.

So, in this family only the duke is referred to as surname 1 surname 2 but in a completely different context of Mr surname 1 met and married miss surname 2 they could have a child surname 1 surname 2 who was completely unrelated to the royal family

She was stunningly beautiful and had something about her which oozed natural classiness (the kind you can't learn).

I don't actually know as her manager was vague enough, but at the same time, hinted that she was nobility of some description.

sorry - cross post - what an interesting mystery! Can you ask her or don’t you know her well enough?

I left that company 20 years ago and we weren't friends, just work colleagues.

What a shame - looks like it’ll stay a mystery!

Maybe it's just somehow ended up not entailed on the male line? It is possible in theory, we just don't see it in the UK. I don't know if it happens in France though.

What does that mean? She was a girl? Or am I having a hard-of-thinking day today? 😆

Maybe her father was the then duke of surname1 surname2