The family name "Houdmont" can be traced back very probably to a village called 'Houdemont'. It is situated in the southern part of Belgium close to the Great Duchy of Luxembourg. Up to c.1620, a huge number of homonyms in the immediate surroundings have been found suggesting that the presumption is correct. An authoritative study (1890) by a Emile Tandel explains the ethymology as follows: Houdemont, Houdremont in 1260 and Houdemont in 1270 also written as Houlmont, Houlemont, Houl, Hol = pit, cavity; the village is situated in a vale inbetween two hills.

Near Nancy in France is another place, Houdemont, where its name is given to an motorway exit. Here the French Marie-Thérèse Morlet, an authorithy in the matter of ethymology, explains the surname as being of Germanic origin: Hildimund 'hild'=struggle, 'mund' = protection. Houdmont, being the contracted form of Houdemont.

How the Houdmonts arrived in Wales from Brugge via Sheffield is another story . . . Why they moved from the southern French-speaking part of Belgium to the Flemish Brugge is due to the fact that an ancestor was a Customs Officer and was often transferred to other places (which was very normal for that profession) and eventually the family settled north and north-west of the country and spread out. Due to marriage (Tournai) one single Houdmont left Flanders and his descendants moved more eastwards into Wallonia. More or less back to their origins.

A lot of Houdmonts were found in Wallonia. In 1795, due to an excusable administrator’s writing error one of them got the name of Houlmont (‘d’ often being pronounced ‘l’ in Wallonia).

With thanks to Paul Houdmont for the original research.

Pieter Houdmont (°1834) and Marie Louise Boivin (°1836), Richard Houdmont's great-great-grandparents

Family tree