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Message: <blockquote data-quote="l_raty" data-source="post: 3396641" data-attributes="member: 24811">French circumflex accents (^) are often the mark of an old s, that ceased to be pronounced and disappeared -- thus we have forêt (forest), bête (beast), prévôt (provost), mât (mast), etc. Chesne is an older spelling for chêne (oak) (<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ch%C3%AAne" target="_blank">wiktionary</a> -- "From Middle French chesne, from Old French chesne, chaisne, chasne, from Vulgar Latin cassanus (attested in Medieval Latin as casnus), probably from Gaulish cassanos."): "Duchesne" or "Duchêne" means "of the oak"; it's not rare as a surname. The final s in "Duchênes" is harder to explain -- but the name does seem to occur (though less frequently) with this spelling as well.Anyway, "Duchesne" and "Duchênes" would have identical pronunciation and general meaning, hence switching from one to the other (either by mistake in an isolated document, or during the evolution of the name) would not be very difficult.In the present case, "Duchesne de Lamotte" seems to be the most widely accepted spelling, with "Duchesne de la Motte" the most frequent variant. (In the registers of the parish of Saint Sépulcre, Abbeville, where he was baptised in 1786, Jean Jules appears as "Duchesne Delamotte": [<a href="http://recherche.archives.somme.fr/ark:/58483/a011261413211ppG949/1/1" target="_blank">here</a>], image 28/196; in 1860, however, the administration of Abbeville registered his death under the name "Duchesne de Lamotte: [<a href="http://recherche.archives.somme.fr/ark:/58483/a011261413212B6ZwZu/1/1" target="_blank">here</a>], image 224/285. [OTOH, I have never seen a letter being capitalized in the middle of a word as in "LaMotte" in standard European French.]) There is a street named <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rue+Duchesne+de+Lamotte,+80100+Abbeville,+France/@50.1083358,1.8300354,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47dd8cc7e7634a87:0x9ef03c3bca44eef8!8m2!3d50.1083324!4d1.8322241" target="_blank">rue Duchesne de Lamotte</a> (this spelling) in Abbeville. The coat of arms of the family: [<a href="http://rouvressuraube.pagesperso-orange.fr/rouvres/histoire_locale_rouvres/famille_duchesne_lamotte.htm" target="_blank">here</a>]; the genealogy of Jean Jules: [<a href="http://gw.geneanet.org/capreolus?lang=fr&p=jean+jules&n=duchesne+de+lamotte" target="_blank">here</a>]; a drawing of his tumbstone: [<a href="http://www1.arkhenum.fr/bm_abbeville_macqueron/_app/visualisation.php?id=8008" target="_blank">here</a>]; a Great Auk, donated by Duchesne de Lamotte, now at the Musée Boucher de Perthes in Abbeville: [<a href="http://www.amis-musee-abbeville.fr/2015/07/11/l-%C5%93uvre-du-mois-7-le-grand-pingouin/" target="_blank">here</a>]; an allusion to the private bird collections of Baillon and Duchesne de la Motte in Abbeville by Jacques Boucher de Perthes, in 1859: [<a href="https://books.google.be/books?id=d9hIAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3" target="_blank">here</a>]; Jean-Baptiste Bailly, in 1854, acknowledging the donation of bird specimens by Duchesne de Lamotte, from Abbeville: [<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=blgQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA296&q=duchesne+lamotte" target="_blank">here</a>]; etc.It seems he had an elder brother, named Jean Pierre -- making him the benjamin in his family. Perhaps this word was added next to his name somewhere, and later interpreted by a reader as being part of it?</blockquote>

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