Daout

Recorded in several forms including Daout, Daouse, Daoust, and Daouze, this is a French surname. It is generally recorded in the north of the country, but that may be simply that for some reason registers have survived more in that region than in others. Many early registers were destroyed in the Revolution of 1792, when it was felt that the Secret Police had been were using them to trace potential rebels. For nearly ten years after 1792 until the accession of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 the church and religion in all its forms, was totally banned in France, so it is perhaps surprising that any registers exist from prior to this date at all. In this case the surname can be described as 'celebratory'. It derives from the phrase d'aout' meaning 'of August', and as such describes a person born in that month. There are similar surnames for most, if not all, months, and many were associated with religious festivals. Early examples from the surviving registers of France include: Guillaume Daoust of Sisconne in the department of Aisne, in 1656, the exact date not being given in the listing, Louis Daoust and his wife Maria being witnesses at St Germain-en-Laye, Seine et Loise, on April 15th 1721, and Marguerite Daouse, a witness at Bagneux, Meurthe et Moselle, on January 13th 1740.