Leotard; Tricky one
So everyone knows that Leotard comes from the French trapeze artist "Léotard" but, where does his surname comes from? All searches for this seemingly French surname result in doubling the fact that a leotard owes its name to a Jules... But the surname is itself untraced in these sources... And know that the Jules are here... What about "Verne"? No mention of him in this page... It just gimme all these wacky ideas on its possible origin, but I can't really know...
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As for the last name Verne, it seems to come from french toponimy, since Verne is a common place name in France - according to http://jeantosti.com/noms/v3.htm, the place name comes from the word 'verne', an old term that indicates a tree, the alder ('aune' in modern french).
Of course a well-known bearer of this last name is the french writer Jules Verne, considered as one of the pioneers of the science-fiction genre.
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Léotard was an old personal name in France, even though its origin is probably german (see http://jeantosti.com/noms/l8.htm, even though the website is in french).
The translation of what is written on that website is: "Léotard, personal name of german origin, Leodhard (leod = people + hard = hard, strong). The last name is mostly spread in Hérault and in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, but it's also found in Loiret. It can also be found in the form Liotard. Italian variant: Leotardi."
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