Surname Cuzner
I own an email genealogy list for people searching information around the surname Cuzner. It appears that the majority of us come from the Somerset,England area. There has been some variations on the name but the primary spelling has been Cuzner. There has been speculation it could be Huguenot but my cousin who is with the One Name Guild and has been researching this surname for years contacted them and they say no. I have checked Jewish and German databases to no avail. Does anyone have any ideas. It is quite frustrating.
renee_mee@yahoo.ca
No professional researchers please contact me
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Some thoughts -
Cozener is an old word that might translate into modern English as "confidence trickster". However, my dictionary only traces this word back to the 16th century, so it might not have been in the vocabulary when surnames were becoming hereditary.
Cuisinier, French for someone who worked in a kitchen.
Paul Reaney suggests that a man described as "cozon" in 1306 was a horse dealer. He also mentions the word cosier as Middle English for a horse dealer. Might Cozoner, later becoming Cuzner, be another version?
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