James Clavell origin & meaning of surname at Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day

JAMES CLAVELL

Origin of His Surname

James Clavell (Charles Edmund DuMaresq de Clavelle) (October 10, 1924 – September 7, 1994) was a novelist famous for books such as Shogun and screenplays such as The Great Escape and To Sir, with Love.

Born in Sidney, Australia, he was the son of Royal Navy hero Richard Charles Clavell, reputedly a descendant of Norman conqueror Walterus de Claville.

Claville is the name of several French towns, one of which began as Klakkr + villa, that is, the domain of a Norseman with the typical Viking name of Klakkr which means ‘door bolt’ or ‘peg’ in Old Scandinavian. Viking names were boisterous, pushy, and often physical nicknames. Klakkr probably referred to the reputed size of his Viking penis! Klakkr is the exact and precise equivalent of a modern American gang nickname like “Big Dick.”

The surname may also be of French origin. In Old 14th century French, when this surname is first recorded in France, un clavel was the wooden beam used as a lintel over a doorway. It could also refer to the keystone of an arch.

The surnames Clavel, Clavell, and Clavelle may also stem from a medieval Latin occupation name clavellus ‘nail-maker’ or ‘maker of keys.’ The founding ancestor of the surname was likely to have been a village blacksmith with a nickname like Pierre Le Clou ‘Peter the Nail.’ When LeClou began to be frequently used as a last name, the family Latinized the surname to make it seem less common, thus Pierre Le Clou became Pierre Clavellus and perhaps later this morphed into Pierre de Clavelle and other pseudo-aristocratic forms more pleasing to the family’s vanity.