The first known example of 'Plant like' names in western Europe dates back to around 2000 years ago. Though he is found in the Alps, Julius Planta could have had links to almost anywhere in the Roman empire.
In 46AD, just 3 years after the Roman invasion of Britain, there is mention of Julius Planta in an edict of the Roman Emperor Claudius, granting citizenship to people living near modern Trento in the Italian Alps, which includes...
`I have for the matter under consideration sent Julius Planta, my friend and advisor. And since he has investigated and examined the matter with the utmost care, in consultation with my procurators, both those who were in the vicinity and those in other parts of the region, with regard to all other matters I grant him permission to make decision and render judgment ....'
DNA testing indicates that the migratory path of the male-line ancestors of the main English Plant family, and many others, passed through central Europe. This migratory path can be broadly associated with the spread of Indo-European languages and it may have been associated with an early culture leading on to subsequent meanings for `Plant(e) like' names which, as well as in England, are found in Aquitaine.
After coming from the general region of the Levant (near modern Israel) around 17,000 years ago, the male-line ancestors of the main English Plant family evidently reached the Black Sea around 9,000 years ago (DNA haplogroup R1b1 developing to R1b1b2 then R1b1b2a) where this ancestry is tentatively associated with the Maykop culture of advanced Neolithic farmers and herders who were amongst the very first to develop metalworking and hence metal weapons. It is then imagined that they underwent a mass migration, around 4500 to 4300 years ago, up the river Danube through central Europe into Western Europe, where the haplogroup of the ancestors of the main Plant family became R1b1b2a1b (also known as R-P312 or R-S116). This haplogroup is associated broadly with Italano-Celtic culture. Though the main English Plant family has been tested for various more specific sub-clades (e.g. sub-clade R1b1b2a1b3 mentioned below), none of the tested sub-clades has been confirmed for this family.
In modern times, there are:
- around 12,000 with the Plant surname in the UK, mainly in England near the border with Wales; and,
- around 2,000 with the surname Plante or Planty or Plantie, in SW France (around Aquitaine). There are around 700 with the Plante surname in Aquitaine and a further 400 immediately to the east in Midi-Pyrenees along with, nearby, around 400 with the surname Planty and another 400 called Plantie. Their origins may tentatively be associated with late medieval times around the general region of Aquitaine (Gascony) in SW France extending eastwards, across the river Garonne through the Midi-Pyrenees perhaps as far as medieval Septimania.
There is some slender evidence consistent with an idea that a culture for such names may have migrated from Aquitaine to England. Though there is no established genetic connection of Plant-like names to the sub-clade R1b1b2a1b3 (aka R-SRY2627 or R-M167), it is more broadly relevant to note that this sub-clade has been associated with the Pyrenees, the Basques, and the Welsh. Some consider that this sub-clade formed about 2000-3000 years ago in Catalonia (NE Spain) where it is found for 20% of the population. In Britain, it is found for no more than 3-4% though it is more common in Cornwall and Devon suggesting some migration, at some stage in its history, up the Atlantic coast from around Aquitaine.
Linguistic influences on the English Plant and French Plante surnames may have come not only from Old English but also from Welsh, Latin and old Aquitanian.
The Romans left Britain in 410AD; and in 491 Frisian tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) brought the Germanic basis of Old English to Britain. Though important for the English language as a whole, this may not represent the main influence for Plant-like names. It is conjectured that most people at the time had been speaking Celtic. Though only about 20 Celtic words survived into English and only about 200 Roman words were found in the first 150 years of Anglo-Saxon English, one of these was planta. A similar word is found in Old High German, Old Norse, and French for example. Also, there was evidently an early interaction between the Latin word planta and the phonetically similar (Celtic) word clanda (meaning `family'). Within such a context, the Welsh word plant, meaning `children', can be considered to be a partial linguistic assimilation of planta with its Latin meaning `shoot' or `offshoot' into pre-Roman tongues with a more specific meaning that extended to human `offspring'.
Old Aquitanian is considered to be the same as old Basque. For example, Aquitanian gods' names in Roman times match with Basque plant and animal names. This may be related to primitive beliefs in man's origins from the land. Such ideas can include ones of regenerations from offshoots as offspring. It may be noted that such concepts span most of the so-called Great Chain of Being and reach right from the humble flora through the Welsh meaning `children' of plant to plant names for Aquitanian gods. Medieval beliefs in `shape shifting' and the transmigration of souls also span a wide range of the species as do, around the times when surnames were forming, scholastic accounts of man's `vegetable soul'. In late medieval scholasticism, which incorporated pagan (largely Greek) philosophy into Christian beliefs, children were considered to be solely vegetative until they received an intellective component of soul from God.
In modern Basque, the word planta means `appearance' or `feigning'. Though the detail of interactions between the Latin and Basque meanings of planta is uncertain, it can be imagined that the French surnames Plante, Planty and Plantie involved a notion of the 'feigning' of individuals from one to another. To this limited extent, there is some conceptual overlap of `feigning' with the meaning `to reproduce' of the Welsh word planta and the associated meaning `children' of plant.
Around 870AD, at the end of the reign of Charles le Chauve of France, a new Duchy of Aquitaine was begun in SW France with count Bernard Planta-pilosa (or Planta Pilus in Latin or Plantevelue in French), who had exerted his authority first on l'Auvergne and le Velay (869-872AD).
The name Plantapilosa in old Aquitanian might have meant 'hairy appearance' though, when Latinized, it can be related to a broom shoot, perhaps relating to an old Aquitanian deity. This may have led on to the Plantagenet nickname, with associated concepts of the `vegetable soul', as I have outlined in: John S. Plant (2007), The tardy adoption of the Plantagenet surname, Nomina, Vol. 30, pp. 57-84.
Less credibly, according to `The Da Vinci Code' of popular fiction and the pseudo-history of `The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail', the name Plantard is supposed to date back to Merovingian times. This has been dubbed The Plantard Subplot which includes:
In particular, the associated `so-called Razes genealogy' includes the `Plantagenet like' names...
- a mythical linkage of Planta in England to Plantard; as well as,
- a family tie of Plantard to Plantagenet and Plantevelue in France.
- Plantard - ardently flowering offshoot of the Merovingian vine;
- Plantavelue - implanter or offshoot of hairy powers of renewal and healing; and,
- Plantamour - implanter or offshoot of the Lord's creative love (or man's generative love).
The Merovingian Dynasty 450-751AD
To put the record straight:
- the 9th century existence of Bernard Plantevelue in Aquitaine is widely accepted and there is widespread modern evidence for the name Plantamour;
- the name Eimeric de la Planta, alias de Plant', appears in 1202 for a land holder in the Angevin homeland of Geffrey Plante Genest (1131-51) count of Anjou in western France; Eimeric was dispossessed of this land, at Chinon and Loudun, perhaps because of death or disgrace, immediately after the victory of Geffrey's grandson, king John, at Mirebeau; and,
- in modern France, the name Plantard is found mostly in Brittany and also near Switzerland where there is evidence also for the noble name Planta.
There is evidence:
- for the true forebears of Geffrey Plante Genest (forefather of the English Plantagenets) in France; and,
- for a more direct cultural Plantagenet-Plant link in England (than the claimed indirect linkage, in the debunked Razes genealogy, of Planta to Plantard and hence to Plantagenet).
The debunked Razes genealogy claims that a blood line Planta in England descended from the Plantards. However, I know of no acredited evidence for that. In the context of the true evidence, there are various possibilities by which `Plant like' names could have arrived in England, such as..
- possibility 1 - `Plant like' names, perhaps from the same culture as the 9th century name Plantevelue of Aquitaine, arrived in England before the 12th century arrival of the ``Plantagenets'' from their Angevin Empire (now western France); or,
- possibility 2 - `Plant like' names, such as Plantebene (1199), Plantefolie (1209), Plantefene (1210), Plente (1219), Planterose (1230), and Plante (1262) originated in England, either independently or following influence from the 12th century noble name Plante Genest (Plantagenet); or,
- possibility 3 - people aready bearing `Plant like' names, such as de la Planta, arrived in England during the times of the Angevin Empire (1154-1204), which comprised 3 distinct blocks (Anglo-Norman, Angevin, Aquitainian).
It seems possible that a popular culture may have led to `Plant like' names around Western Europe, though this requires some understanding of early beliefs.
The Y-line DNA Testing programme of the Plant Family History Group may shed further light on such possibilities. So far, the DNA results indicate that the English Plant family is from different male-line stock than the French-Canadian Plante family.It is possible to make various conjectures about the meanings of Plant-like names. For example, in Breton, ard means art or craft and plantan can mean to implant, such that a possible sense to Plantard is an `implant(er) of skill or divine magic'. The name Plantamour might be related through the `rose of heavenly love' to a `courtly love' sense for the name Planterose. The latter name may have held sense as an `implant(er) of heavenly love and healing' since the healing powers of the rose were believed to be many. Alternatively, Planterose may have related to the old French Planterosse with a `horse borne establisher' sense similar to that of Plantagenet.
The name of the Plantagenets however is more usually said to relate to their emblem, the sprig of broom. The sprig of broom is hairy and it can hence be related to a virile hair sense to Plantevelue. Such a connection seems less extraordinary when it is noted (a) that hair (and bone and nail) was said, in the philosophy of Scotus Erigena (a contemporary of Bernard Plantevelue), to contain only insensitive `vegetative life'; (b) the Merovingians were reknown for their cult of long hair; and, (c) in the Middle English herbal Agnus Castus, broom is ascribed the vertue of knitting together broken bones and sinews. Powers of healing broken bones could have been important to Plantevelue and the Plantagenets.
More particulalry, a Latinized meaning of Plantevelue was `hairy shoot' and the sprig of broom is an instance of a hairy shoot. Names of philandering were popular at the time of Geffrey Plante Genest, who was the forefather of the Plantagenet surname.
Subject to further findings, the possibility has been considered (Journal Number 27) that many Plant-like names are unrelated except that they arose from similar late medieval cultures, spread across Western Europe, involving Greek and Celtic traditions modified by Christian teachings, interacting with the Latin word planta. The Latin word planta implies life's foundations as `sole of foot' or `shoot for propagation' and, in (Celtic) Welsh, planta becomes `to beget children' and plant becomes `children'. This can be related to pre-scientific beliefs in mythic origins from the land as well as from blood ties.
Since the times of the Egyptian deity Osiris circa 2400BC there had been a long tradition of vegetation, fertility, and the soul and, even by the 17th century, the English poet John Milton described death as returning to earth and our mother's lap. In Welsh myth, Math could not live unless he kept his feet in the lap of a virgin and, with Gwidion, he created Blodeuedd from blossoms of oak, broom, and meadowsweet. There is various evidence of pre-scientific belief for life's origins that involved a mixing of concepts of the vegetable or vegetative soul (from the land) and intellective life from the Lord's Word (and from blood ties).
Plantevelue can mean `hairy foot' as well as `hairy shoot for propagation'. Both meanings can be related to contemporary beliefs about life's origins and to Pseudo-Dionysius writings on the All-Ruling Deity as the mighty root of creation springing forth various plants.
The Bible represents the foundations of God's kingdom as the smashed feet of clay of Babylon's third kingdom producing the miry clay at the foot of a mountain for the propagation of men's seeds (Daniel 2:31-44). It also represents men as the plants in God's vineyard (Isiah 5:7) and as the branches of Jesus as the vine with God as the husbandman (John 15:1-5). The rose is substituted for vigin birth in Middle English (cf. augmentation of the flesh) and peas for Jesus as the Prince of Pees (cf. the integrating vine of peas or peace). The 14th century Middle English poet William Langland states that `Love is the plant of pees' indicating a metaphorical grounding of man's or God's love not only on the planting of pea seeds but also on the integrating vine.
Though some Plant-like names may have related to a religious work ethic, there is sense as `scions of the holy vine' or `souls of God' for such names as Plantevine, Plantevin, Plantebene, Plantefeve, Planterose, and Plantamour. The vegetable soul of augmentation or porrection can explain the national emblems of England (rose) and Wales (leeks). In Switzerland, there are various Plant-like names including Plantaporrets (dialect for leeks), Plantefoi and Plantfor, and there is the noble Planta/Von Planta family. In `Plantagenet' England, Plantebene or Plantefolie can mean a `hallowed offshoot or child' or a `child of (contrition of) sin' and, rather similarly in Switzerland, Plantefoi or Plantfor can mean a `planted place or child of faith or testimony' or a `child of tribunal or conscience'.
Across medieval Europe the vegetable soul carried powers of nutrition, augmentation and generation. Meanings based on the sole of God's kingdom, or the soul of augmentation or porrection, or the soul of love or generation of children can explain such names as Planta, Planterose, Plantaporrets, Plantamour, and Plant.
A possible line of influence can be traced through the names Plantevelue and Plante Genest starting in Aquitaine in France, leading on to the Plant surname in England.
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Geoffrey Plante Genest, count of Anjou and Maine was the father of king Henry II of England and, amongst others, Hamelyn, Warren earl of Surrey (London) - it is near Hamelyn's de Warenne descendants that the subsequent English Plant surname is mainly found. In 1200, king John married Isabella of Angouleme in Aquitaine who subsequently married Hugh de Lusignan, the most prominent baron of Aquitaine. In 1247, John de Warenne married Alice Lusignan (de Brien) and English resentments of favouritism towards the `foreign' Lusignans led on to the Baron's revolt in England, leading to the capture of king Henry III at Lewes (1264), though the king was freed by John de Warenne at Evesham (1265).
There is evidence the name Plante Genest (hence Plantagenet) was used for Geffrey by the 1160s; but, evidence for subsequent use of the name is weak until the mid 15th century. A rare early explicit mention is in the Close Rolls (1266): this refers to Galfrido Plauntegenet, serjent at arms, Wodestock, with garderode duties to the king. Also at Woodstock, with duties to the royal palace, there is the first evidence for the spelling Plente which is found in 1219 just after the times of Henry II's son, the lecherous king John; and this spelling can be associated with the meaning `abundance' or `fertile'.
The name spelling Plante occurs in England by 1262. In modern France, this spelling is clustered around Aquitaine. Though `Plant like' names may have arrived in England earlier (possibility 1), an Aquitainian influence could relate to possibilities of such names arriving in the times of the Angevin Empire (possibilities 2 and 3 above), which comprised three blocks: Anglo-Norman; Angevin; and Aquitainian. There is particular reason to suppose an influence on the formation of the Plant surname in England from Geffrey Plante Genest's nickname, which fathered the subsequent royal surname, Plantagenet, as well as evidently influencing more immediately the formation of such names as Plant.
The Plant surname is found in close proximity to various de Warenne lands around England until the mid 14th century; this is when the Plants settled in their principal homeland of east Cheshire which is also where the disinherited de Warenne family settled. Early Plants were also found near the lands of William Longspée (Long Sword) who was (like the de Warennes) an illegitimate descendant of Geffrey Plante Genest. It seems likely that there was an influence from the Plante Genest nickname on the English Plant surname, though this may have just been through the popularity around Longspée and de Warenne lands of the Plante Genest metaphor of a `growing shoot' for renewing life's origins.
The possibility of a Welsh influence on the formation of the Plant surname may also be considered: there was an early Welsh influence on the de Warennes through a 1225 marriage to Maud (Matilda) Marshall of Pembroke who had earlier married a half-brother of Longspée; and the subsequent homeland of the de Warennes, along with that of the Plants, was near Wales. In Welsh, plant means children and, in Old Irish, cland means family: both cland and plant are said to come from early adoptions of the Latin word planta. Phonetically similar words in modern English are clan and plant, though we now use other words for life's foundations: land; sole; sprig; scion; and child. Sprig and scion have both human and vegetable meanings, which is appropriate to a medieval view of life's origins as shoots from the land (man's vegetable soul) as well as offshoots from the Lord in His kingdom (intellective soul). Man's vegetable soul can be traced back to primitive beliefs about human life's emergence from the land.
In particular a culture of a `hairy shoot' tradition may have been transmitted by the Longspée and de Warenne descendants of Geffrey Plante Genest to the formative Plant surname. This may have been ameliorated by more godly meanings such as through a mid-thirteenth-century Savoyard influence in England - for example, the Queen's uncle Peter of Savoy was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
By the time that Plantagenet became an hereditary royal surname in the mid-fifteenth century, a more developed scholastic (godly) sense may have come to more the fore. In the intervening period, the English Plant surname (with possible spellings Plente or Plonte or Plaunt) may have held a Welsh-like `offspring' meaning that was compatible with the `growing shoot of renewal' sense of the influential nickname Plante Genest and the `fertile' or `abundant' sense of plente.
Anglo-Gascon Savoyard Plantebene - pleasant shoot _:_ Plantefene - eager shoot _:_ Plantefoi - planted faith Plantefolie - wickedness shoot _:_ Plantamour - planted love Planterose - risen shoot _:_ Plantefor - planted conscience
The DNA and Aquitanian evidence is in keeping with the Welsh. The initial meaning of Plant was very likely `feignings' or `offspring' and the DNA evidence shows that the Plants comprised an abnormally large number of `children' of, at least mostly, a single family. But whose?
That the first Plants had a cultural connection to the Plante Genest nickname is better evidenced than the modern myth of their blood-link to Plantard. Despite nineteenth-century claims, their connection to Plantagenet was more likely cultural than genetic; and, it is relevant to consider Plantagenet-related concepts about the vegetative soul.
Origins of Plant Name