Home

Origin of the Name Scoville

The only conclusive answer to the question, "Where does the name Scoville come from?" is from England, because the first recording spelling of the name, spelled "de Scoville" is found there first in 1194, born by Ralph de Scoville, a knight, with whom modern Scoville's in all of our variant spellings can find a definite, if not complete, link.

Corfe Castle

More can ascertained linguistically. The "de", French for "of" or "from", means that de Scoville was a territorial surname, a name describing where a person was from and often meaning that the bearer of the name held land, so the first known Scoville, Ralph de Scoville, would have been "Ralph from Scoville". Scoville itself is French as well, as ville in French translates as "city" or "town", so we can surmise that Scoville comes from a French speaking area of Europe, almost without doubt on the continent and not in England itself (the language of the nobility in England was officially French from 1066 to 1362), as most place names in England had already been established before the Norman invastion of 1066.

So where is this place named Scoville where Ralph's ancestors lived? Brainard postulates this to be the village of Escoville, near Caen, in the region of Normandy in France. This logically makes sense as:

  1. Scoville appears within 150 years after the conquest of England by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, and by this time was already well established in England, since Ralph is already a knight and landowner in 1194.
  2. An Ernulf de Scoville is attested to in Normandy in 1227 (Brainard 14). Ernulf and Ralph are both linguistically Nordic or Germanic. This may lend credibility that Scoville is of Norman origin.
  3. In French, someone with a territorial surname from Escoville would write their last name as d'Escoville. This easily could have become "de Scoville", as the pronunciation would have been almost identical.

I have had an opportunity to visit Escoville, and the visit raised more questions than answers. Please visit the Escoville, France page for further details.

It is also interesting to note that there is a village named Scoville1 in Belgium, which is near the village of Mohiville (map). Brainard notes this in his footnotes on pages 19 and 20:

The following is worthy of note. Mrs. Melville A. Scovell of Kansas City has called my attention to a passage found by her in a volume in the British Museum, entitled "Vie du R. P. de Scouville" (Jesuit Missionary). The passage reads in part as follows: Scouville ou Scoville est une hameau de la commune de MohiviUe et a tourjours fait partie de la paroisse de son chef lieu; jadis du district de Poilvache, il appartient aujourd'hui a l'arrondissement de Dinant, province de Namur. C'est de la que les Scouville tirent leur nom et leur extraction." (Translation.) "Scouville or Scoville is a hamlet of the town of Mohiville and has always been a part of the parish arrondissement of Dinant, province of Namur. It is from the name of this hamlet that the Scouvilles or Scovilles draw their name and origin." It is further stated in the volume here referred to that the name appears among the magistrates, who for centuries were exclusively men of high lineage.

The places here named lie in southern Belgium, near the French border. This region has not usually been considered as a source of emigration to England in the twelfth century. But if this hamlet existed at that time, it is not impossible that a man deriving his name from this little place should have reached England and founded a family there.

It is unfortunate that more information about this R.P. de Scouville is not given, as it is impossible from this one mention to put it in perspective. Even the date would shed more light. No one to my knowledge has found the volume in question or visited Escoville, Belgium, to study this further.

Footnotes

  1. Thanks to Jeff Scovell for correcting the name of the village in Belgium which I had incorrectly listed as Escoville, but is correctly Scoville and for letting me know that it is near Mohiville, east of Dinan