Mercier

Origins and History

Mercier derives from the Old French and Latin mercarius — a merchant or dealer. In medieval France, the mercier was a specific type of trader who sold goods not made in-house: cloth, thread, notions, and small manufactured items. The guild of mercers was one of the most powerful trade guilds in Paris and other major cities, and its members formed part of the prosperous merchant class that sat between the nobility and the working poor.

The name was well established by the thirteenth century. By the time France required hereditary surnames in the fifteenth century, Mercier had become one of the most geographically widespread occupational names in the country, concentrated in the commercial centres of Paris, Rouen, Tours, and Lyon.

French Huguenots bearing the Mercier name fled France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, settling in England, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, and South Africa. The Cape Colony in particular received Huguenot settlers who became some of the founding families of what is now the Western Cape wine country.

The French Diaspora

The Huguenot Mercier families who settled in the Cape Colony in the late seventeenth century are an important part of South African French heritage. The town of Franschhoek — "French corner" — was settled partly by bearers of surnames like Mercier, Du Plessis, and De Villiers, and their descendants remain in the region today.

In French Canada, Mercier families arrived through the seventeenth-century migration, and the name is well represented in Quebec. Honoré Mercier served as Premier of Quebec from 1887 to 1891 — one of the province's most celebrated political figures.

Spelling Variants

• Mercière
• Lemercier
• Demercier
• Le Mercier
• Mercyer