Submitted Surname Revision History

for someone who behaved like a marquis or an occupational name for a servant in the household of a marquis, from Old Northern French marquis. The title originally referred to the governor of a border territory (from a Germanic word; compare march and marka). Marquises did not form part of the original French feudal structure of nobility; the title was first adopted by the Counts of Toulouse because of their possessions in the border region beyond the Rhône. Cognate of Marchesi.