Why do many French placenames in the Dordogne end in -ac?

Question

Why do many French placenames in the Dordogne end in -ac?

Answer 1

read the first answer and the examples - but ac really means "of" in old French, eg

Bergerac - berger, farmer, = of the farmer

Answer 2

It comes from a long long time ago. The Gauls used the word acos to signify 'land of', the roman romanised it to accum. By adding it to one of the three names Romans used they named their domains thus. Julliacum, land of Julius.

By mid Middle Age the old latin and gallic names, already well mauled phonetically by people who did not speak those languages anymore, meant nothing to the scribes and they were translated phonetically into French.

Julliacum became Juillac, Primiacum became Prémilhac, Secondiacum became Segonzac, Icciacum became Issigeac, Tertiacum became Tersiac etc...

In the north of France another spelling prevailed probably due to accent and local spelling and Juliacum became Juilly, Icciacum became Issy etc.

Answer 3

  Before invasions french territories were celtic - the witnesses of this language are very scarce -

  the end -Ac exists not only in the Dordogne, but in Auvergne, Massif Central, Lot, Aveyron, Tarn which were celtic before the roman invasions - Ac means village

  Surprisingly the same end "- Ac " exists in Bretagne which was not celtic - but became celtic after Celts who had left France in a first phase, landed back onto this country where nobody wanted to live -

  In the particular case of South-western France, today th city names combine very often the celtic Ac and the name of the first roman colonist to whom the estate was granted -

   Example : Souillac -      village of Solius

                   Salviac  -      village of Salvius ( Salge )

                   Marminiac -  village of Marminius

                   Segonzac -  village of Secundus

                  

        

                   etc.