Bourgault

Bourgault (French pronunciation: ​[boʁɡo]); is a surname derived from Old French but ultimately of Germanic French origin . "Bourg" is from the Frankish *burg meaning town, fortress, or castle and "ault" (-aud) from the Frankish *wald meaning power, mastery, or rule. Philologically, a plurality of Frankish (Franconian) words with the phoneme "w" were changed to gu/ga/gau while developing into nascent old French (e.g. Frankish *werra "war"= "guerre" in Old French, *want "gauntlet"= "gant", and *walha "foreigner/Celt"= "gaulois"). See: Gauthier. Thus, the name means roughly "master of fortification," indicating a position along the lines of a castellan or burgrave. The toponymic "gau" may be significant by dint of the historiographical connotations of the name's meaning. Archaic variants and cognates of the name, used then as an occupational given name, are attested to as early as the 6th century and are found in Fredegar's chronicle although the validity of this source, notwithstanding its primary nature, is often called into question. Therein, one Burgoald was a strongman under King Guntram in the area of Chalon.