When Francis Richard Gratton was born on 7 October 1929, in East Rochester, Monroe, New York, United States, his father, Francis Blake Gratton, was 25 and his mother, Hazel Estelle Warren, was 20. He married Janice Wood on 1 September 1951, in Perinton, Monroe, New York, United States. He lived in Lima, Lima, Livingston, New York, United States in 1930 and West Covina, Los Angeles, California, United States in 2012. He died on 31 July 2012, in South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado, California, United States, at the age of 82.
Some characteristic forenames: French Andre, Fernand, Adelard, Armand, Aurore, Emile, Gaston, Gilles, Julien, Monique, Normand, Remi.
English (Derbyshire and Staffordshire): habitational name from any of various places so named. Gratton in Derbyshire is from Old English grēat ‘great’ + tūn ‘enclosure, settlement’. Gratton in High Bray, Devon, is probably ‘great hill’, from Old English grēat + dūn. A number of minor places in Devon are named from the dialect word gratton, gratten ‘stubble-field’.
French (mainly Vendée): from gratton, a noun derivative of the verb gratter ‘to scrape’, denoting a dish prepared from melted pork, goose or duck fat (ham) scraped from the bottom of the pot, probably applied as a nickname for a cook.
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