Bettencourt (surname)

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Original Bettencourt coat of arms.

Bettencourt is a surname from place-names in Northern France. Otherwise the name can be found in French, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking areas in localized variants such as Betencourt, Bettencourtt, Bettencour, Betancourt, Bethancourt, Bitencourt, Bittencourt, Betancur, Betancurt, Betancor, Bethcourt, Betancourt, Bitancurt, Betanco, and Betencur are also used. The indigenised variants Bitangcur, Bitangcol, and Bitangcor are uncommon surnames found in the Philippines.

Origin

Bettencourt and Bethencourt are originally place-names in Northern France. The place-name element -court ″courtyard, courtyard of a farm, farm″ is typical of the French provinces, where the Frankish settlements formed an important part of the local population. It translated the Old Low Franconian word *hof ″courtyard, courtyard of a farm, farm″ (Dutch, Old English hof, German Hof)

Communes of France ending with -court

Bettencourt / Bethencourt corresponds exactly to several Bettenhoffen, Bettenhof or Bettenhoven in Alsace, Germany or Flanders.

The first part Betten- is the Germanic personal name (owner's name) Betto.

The surname Bettencourt / Bethencourt with various spellings extended throughout Spain, Portugal and their colonies, after the Norman-French explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who conquered the Canary Islands for Spain and received the title King of the Canary Islands. To this day, Betancourt and other forms of his surname are quite frequent among Canary Islanders and people of Canary Islander descent, in spite of his death without issue, thanks to the practice of baptising the natives with his surname and to the offspring of his nephew Maciot de Béthencourt who succeeded him as lord of the islands.

Examples include former Colombian president Belisario Betancur, former Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt, and Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancurt, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Other modern notables in recent news are Venezuelan baseball player Rafael Betancourt, Azorean (Portuguese) born American musician Nuno Bettencourt, Colombian-French activist/politician Ingrid Betancourt.

People

Bettencourt

Betancourt, Bethancourt

Bittencourt

Other variants

Legal cases

Other

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