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Fancourt looks like a surname, which fits in with the custom in English-speaking countries to give a person a surname as a first name or middle name. A Google search for the Fancourt surname yielded this:

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http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Fancourt, (be sure to include the comma in the link when you copy and paste it into your browser's address bar)

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In case you're hesitant or unable to copy and paste the link, here is an excerpt from the information written on that website:

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"The Bedfordshire village of Fancott, near Toddington, is almost certainly the origin of this slightly French looking surname.In fact it seems that in the 18th century an attempt was made to imply this origin when one Peter Fanaquet married Mary Grumley at St Georges Church, Mayfair, on November 25th of that year. This however is a lone recording, the others clearly point to the English origin. The village name probably translates as 'the place (cott) where 'fanning' is carried out' - 'fanning' being a form of winnowing to remove the wheat from the stalk. There are many spelling forms, ranging from Fancutt to Fancourt, an indication that in the 16th century the village was cleared, and the tenants forced off their land under the iniquitous Enclosure Acts. They then took,or were given, as their surnames, the name of their former village, but lack of spelling then lead to the variant sounds like forms being created. Examples of the recordings include Ralph Fancott, a witness at St Margarets Church, Westminster on February 2nd 1646, Margery Fancutt, who married Thomas Hyne at St Peters Church, Pauls Wharf, London, on July 13th 1654, and Robert Fancett, christened at St Giles Cripplegate, London, on June 14th 1801. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anthony Fancet, which was dated July 2nd 1586, a witness at St Annes Church, Blackfriars, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as 'Good Queen Bess', 1558 - 1604. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling."

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Known bearers of this surname were:
- Darrell Fancourt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Fancourt
- Samuel Fancourt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Fancourt

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Interestingly, Darrell Fancourt also has some ties with South Africa via his father, who made a fortune there. You mentioned a golf court named Fancourt in South Africa, so perhaps the golf court was originally named after someone with the surname Fancourt. If so, I wonder whether the bearer descended from an originally English family, or whether the bearer descended from an originally Dutch family. You see, one of the dominant languages in South Africa is Afrikaans, which is closely related to archaic Dutch. The language is one of the remnants of the fact that South Africa had once been colonized by the Dutch. It is possible that in the case of South Africa, someone with the Fancourt surname came from an originally Dutch family. The original Dutch surname must then have been Van Koert (pronounced: vahn koort), and must ultimately have been anglicized into Fancourt after South Africa fell into British hands.

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I looked into the Van Koert surname and funnily enough it appears to be a "dutchized" surname, of what was originally Venecourt or Vincourt (both of which must originally have been French surnames, the latter originating from the Provence region of France). For more information about those surnames, I would recommend you to try the message board at http://surnames.behindthename.com , as that message board solely deals with the meaning and origin of surnames.

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"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins

This message was edited 1/18/2013, 5:16 PM