I have come across a very unique name: Hyppositienne. Any ideas of the origin? [closed]

Question

The parish register has the spelling Hyppositienne. She later spelled the name in various ways: Epousitienne, Epoucitienne. It is not a recognized Québécois name and I can find no Catholic Saint by that name.

Just curious as to the possible origin of this name.

Also of note there is a pending match with [[Gagne-95]] as well as for her husband Paul Ouellette.

Comments

I have no knowledge to base it on, but my gut feeling is that it sounds Greek.

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I agree that it looks Greek.  But the ending seems like Etienne.  Perhaps it is a made-up, compound name?

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thank you good idea

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Possibly misunderstood and two names Hyppolite and Etienne got combined or it was a misspelling of some actual name?  I have an ancestor named Hercilla, a name I have seen nowhere else, but that’s how it’s written in the family Bible.  I think she was meant to be Ursula, but no one could spell it.

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When immigrants come to the US, they tend to anglicize their original names.  Maybe this guy was originally from Greece and changed his name when he immigrated to France or Canada or wherever.  All the other names mentioned also look French.

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Good thinking but she was from a long line of French Canadians born in Québec.

Answer 1

lol, now that one does take the cake.  I've seen lots of odd names before, but this one appears to have been written phonetically by the priest according to his understanding of it.  Neither godparent could sign, the baptism says the father was absent.  

The other children I find for those parents are named:

from baptisms: Marie Thècle, Firmin, Marie Henriette Célina, Marie Philomène Arthémise, Michel, François Xavier, and from marriages: Emma, Claire, Pierre.  There may be more.

She actually could sign and wrote Marie Épousitienne Gagné on her marriage, her sister signing Marie Arthémise Gagné.

I think from looking at these names that the parents were trying to get unusual names for their children, probably to differentiate from all the other Gagné children around, that family name is quite common.

Frankly I think they invented the name, possibly combining forms to arrive at it.  You'll probably get a database error on the thing as unusual name, just mark it false error.  

Answer 2

Would Epous etc be the one in the 1920 Census US in Androscoggin Maine? m. to Paul.  E. born c1851.

Comments

Yes it is her, the census page is linked in her sources.

Answer 3

Hippo- is from the Greek, "horse". I wonder if this name is just a creative version of the more common (but still very exotic) Hippolyte, which the parents modified with the -ienne ending? There seems to be no French word with the stem hippoc/sit(e), a made-up word that would combine hippo with the Latin situs to mean something like "place of horses".

Comments

Excellent idea, the real origin of the name may never be known but tying it to Hippolyte seems quite reasonable. I will search for an Hippolyte amongst her family.