Verchambre

Recorded as Vercamer, Vercambre, Verchambre and Veschambre, this is a French surname. It apparently translates literally as "to the room" and originates from the region known as Savoyarde and Lyonaise. The Dictionnaire Etymologique de France gives no indication of the real meaning, but in the medieval times a chambre often represented an official meeting place like a town hall or similar rather than just a room in a house. This would suggest that the name was topographical for somebody who lived at such a place, but a more likely probability is that for most nameholders it was occupational for a keeper of a chambre, the private chambers of royalty or nobility. This was a position of considerable trust, and remains so today. As a surname the spelling in France is normally Cambre, Chambre, Chamberlaine, Lachambre, de la Chambre, or in England Chambers or Chamberlain. Sadly the early records and registers of France are often either erratic or non existent. The majority were destroyed during the famous Revolution of 1792 being regarded by the revolutionaries as instruments of the royalist secret police.