THE NAME’S HISTORY AND ITS SPREADING THROUGH THE AGES

The Séguins patronymic origin

SEIG was the first name of a Saxon or Teutonic warlord meaning war or combat and WIN meaning victory evolved to Sig-Win, Siquinum then Seguin the victorious.

Through the ages the letter “W” changed to “GU”: William became Guillaume in French. Year 778 saw the first Seguin in the history books after Charlemagne made him Count de Bordeaux. (See «La Séguinière» volume 3, number 2, page 11).

Seguin is the most beautiful name in the world. The proof is on the Eiffel tower in Paris. The name is engraved on the first level of the tower facing the river la Seine – a prime location on the most visited monument in the world.

The accent on the “e” is mostly used in French Canada. It’s most likely due to the merging of different dialects and the various pronunciations of our ancestors coming from different regions of France.

In France, SEGUIN is most popular without the accent although it can be found on names like: La Séguinière, Les Séguins, Les Séguineries.

In genealogy, Séguin and Seguin have the same filiation.

The Séguins in France

According to historians and genealogists, the Seguin family took its roots in the Bordeaux region.

The name has close ties to the Guyenne and Gascogne history and the Seguin has always been established along the Garonne River. On October 5^th, 1795, during the French Revolution, the castle Château du Séjour at la Réole was demolished.

In Lignan near Bordeaux, the Seguin Castle, built during the XVII^th century, is said to have been built on the ruins of Count Carolingian Seguin’s building dating from 780.

Today, superior Bordeaux is bottled at the vineyard of the Château des Seguin.

The Seguins are an integral part of France’s history: Armand Seguin, businessman (1767-1835) gave his name to an island on La Seine. Marc Seguin (1786-1875), an engineer whose name is on the Eiffel tower. Armand Seguin (1869-1903) was a painter. More recently, Philippe Seguin (1943) was France’s president of the Assemblée Nationale from 1993 to 1997 and president of the Rassemblement Pour la République party from 1997 to 1999.

In Machecoul, Brittany, south of Nantes, the famous distillery Rémy Martin offers a cognac by the name “La Fine Bretagne Seguin”

Alphonse Daudet made “La chèvre de Monsieur Seguin” famous, through his writing in “Lettres de mon Moulin”. His story established the name Seguin in the French-speaking nations as a genuine French name.

The Séguins in America

During the XVII^th century the Séguins were well established in France. Some of them immigrated to Canada and planted their roots along the St Lawrence River. They originated from various regions of France, but thanks to their different surnames, their regions of origin are easily identifiable, for instance: François of Picardie, Joseph of Bourgogne, Jean of Normandie, Guillaume of Île-de-France, Charles of Poitou and Jacques of Marche.

The first Séguin to live along the St Lawrence valley was Marguerite Séguin from Poitou. She married Etienne Proteau from Charlesbourg in 1663.