What is the origin of the name “Permezel”?

The earliest references in Savoie are in the mid sixteenth century when the spelling of the name was Permaysel (1).  Spelling of names at this time was not formalised and that did not occur until there was a need to know the demography of a country. Thus standardising of names did not occur until there were censuses. The letter ‘s’ was often interchangeable with ‘z’ and ‘y’ with ‘e’ or ‘i’.

Some of the French branch of the family maintain that the name is of French origin. They believe that the name Permezel is, in effect, the combination of two words, namely, Per and Mezel. Per is a contraction of Pierre and is common in French names, e.g. Perrin, Perroud etc. Mezel (2) has three meanings – in old French, a leper or a butcher or the locality of Mezel in the Puy de Dome. Thus Permezel can mean Peter the leper, Peter the butcher or Peter from Mezel. The latter would indicate a migration of about 300 kilometres from west of Lyon to Domessin.

Despite the fact the Domessin was in Savoie, it was very close to the French border. France had occupied Savoie for a short time in the mid-16th century but it did not become part of France until 1860 when Napoleon III made the ceding of Savoie and Nice to France a condition for France’s recognition of the new unified Italy. Under these circumstances, it is quite feasible that the local language could have been French and that there could have been considerable movement of people between the two countries.

A recent French national map identifies a locality named `Permezel’ in Isére (3) a few kilometres west of St Albin de Vaulserre. There is also a village called Prémeyzel 24 kilometres north west of Chambéry, once the capital of Savoie. Is Permezel a corruption of this name or vice versa?

Another interesting possibility about the origin of the name comes from an Australian family legend. Octavie (1862) used to tell various family members that the Permezel family had a Polish origin and first came to France as part of the household of a Polish princess who married a French king. Octavie had in her possession a clock (4) which was allegedly given to the Permezel for services rendered. The dating of this object may help to establish the period in which this took place. So far it has not been possible to identify such a princess, nevertheless, the name does have a similarity to some names from eastern Europe and, in particular, from what was once Bohemia.

There were the Premzl(or Premysl) kings who ruled Bohemia between about 800 to 1306. There is the city Przemysl in what is now south east Poland and was originally part of Bohemia. If the name had its origins in this part of the Europe, it would have slavic roots. In modern Polish, there is the word ‘przemyslal’ (5) which means thought or related to activity of the brain. The root of the word is ‘mysl’ meaning thought and ‘prze’ meaning sound or thorough. If this is the origin then persons bearing the name would be those who took their place in society through the exercise of their minds rather than that of the body, e.g. clerical rather than manual work. This would be appropriate for a person who was part of the household of a princess, say in the capacity of a tutor or scribe.

It has recently come to light that, at some stage, the Permezels had what is described as a `famous patron’, Marie Locinsky (6). Marie was the daughter of the exiled King of Poland (Stanislas) and married Louis XV of France in 1725. This is about the time the Permezels were moving from Domessin to Pont de Beauvoisin. The later was one of the major border crossings between France and countries to the east. This does add some credence to the suggested Polish connection but is not yet clearly established.

Savoie was at one time part of the Holy Roman Empire and during that period there may have been movement of people who held some post in the administration to various parts of the Empire. This is supported by the fact that a family with a similar name ‘Premuzel’ (7) exists in Luino near the Italian border with Switzerland. This part of present day Italy was in Lombardy which was ruled by Austria until 1815. However, more recent information gives the origin of this name as being derived from the name of a village in that area.

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(1)  Information provided by Jacques(1911) to John(1925) c.1972.
(2)  Dictionnaire Étymologique des Noms de Famille et Prénoms de France.
(3)  Map Voiron 3-4, coordinates 5°41’10″E 45°30’10″N.
(4)  At one time the ‘clock’ was thought to be an object like a sundial in the possession of Elaine(1928) but it is too recent in age.
(5)  Based on the views of Robert Bartnik, who was born in Poland, as conveyed to John(1925).
(6)  Cedric(1892) in a letter to his parents, written from London at Christmas 1914, relates about visiting the Wallace Collection and seeing a miniature of Marie Locinsky which he describes as ` the Permezel famous patron’.
(7)  Premuzel is the spelling in the local dialect. The current Italian form is ‘Premoiselle’. Two members of that family currently live in Melbourne and they came from Luino which is located on the east shore of Laco Maggiore, about 7 kilometres from the Swiss border.