On this section of the Web site, information about the history of the Grivel name and families will be presented.
This page will investigate the origin of the name Grivel. The following additional sections are available or intended in this History area.
The News section will list news items relevant to the History area.
The Worldwide section gives some answers to the question where Grivels can be found in the world, and maybe how they came there.
The Biographies section will provide biographies and auto-biographies of individual Grivels.
More detailed genealogical information on individual Grivels can also be found on the Genealogy area of this Website.
The following explanation for the origin of the name Grivel is provided by Eric Grivel from Bordeaux, France:
The name Grivel can be explained by the color "poivre et sel" which is between black (the colour of pepper "poivre") and white (the colour of salt): so grey (gri..vel), in fact!
Others say that Grivel is linked with what we call a "grivelerie": a swindle. For instance people used to say "une grivelerie" when speaking of for instance a eating without paying for it.
The following is from Jean-Claude Grivel from Denmark:
I do not have precise information about the origine of the Grivel name. However, on the familly arms that were, and are hopefully still, hanging in my father's house, there is a bird, called "Grive" in French standing on there. According to a Swiss dictionnary of genealogy, the familly name was already recorded in the 14th century in Switzerland (or more precisely in a region that became Swiss later on).
Serge Grivel sgrivel@dplanet.ch from Switzerland contributed the following about the Grivel name in St. Livres and Aubonne, which is in the state of Vaud in Switzerland
Il y a tant à dire, d'abord il est à peu près certain que les Grivel d'Aubonne sont originaires de Saint-Livres. La preuve est apportée par le Livre d'Or des familles vaudoises 1932 p. 224: La famille Grivel de Saint-Livres obtient la bourgeoisie d'Aubonne en 1595. La famille Grivel obtient la bourgeoisie de Saint-Livres avant 1592.
Comme le dernier Terrier concernant St-Livres que j'ai consulté montre clairement qu'il y a encore deux branches de Grivel en 1506, il y a fort à parier qu'en 1480 à peu près, une génération précédente, les Grivel faisaient déjà partie de la bourgeoisie de St-Livres. Je suis content car par cette preuve, je fais mentir un document qui date de 1932!
For those who do not read French, I believe Serge is saying that the Grivel family was "admitted to the freedom of the city" in Aubonne in 1595. The same thing happened in Saint-Livres, near Aubonne, in 1592. Older records, before there was a civil registry in Switzerland, show that Grivels were already living in the St. Livres area in the 15th century.
He continues to speculate about this history of the Grivel name:
... mais il est vrai que pour beaucoup de généalogistes, les Grivel seraient un déformation des Grivaz de Payerne qui ont obtenu la bourgeoisie de cette ville en 1444.(En latin Grivel s'écrit Grivez). Cela dit, aucune preuve ne vient étayer cette supposition.
Loosely translated, it says that many genealogists believe that the name "Grivel" comes from "Grivaz de Payerne" ("Grivel" is written "Grivez" in Latin), a family which obtained "the freedom of the city" in Payenne in 1444.
