Where does the surname puinot originate from?

Question:

Where does the surname puinot originate from?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm guessing that it is French and may have been Puineau as an alternative spelling. I found in the 1500's I had ancestors called Bourgoyne, so obviously some French there.
What you might do is to try the "Huguenot Society" (French Protestants who fled here to escape Catholic persecution in France) and ask them - they have large registers of immigrants from that time and the name may be familiar to them. Find contact details on line. Don't forget that the Parish spelling of a name is how the local Reverend heard it. I have searched Google, Family history and name search plus others and the only thing i can find with that name is below.
Don't think it will be any help.
http://vo.wiktionary.org/wiki/puinot... Really don't kow but it sounds Spanish or Portuguese. Then, I may be wrong. DB Even with a common name, the standard answer here is to find the PERSON, not the name. In this case, that is even more absolute.
I'll usually start with checking the social security death index, since many of the questions here come from the US. That alone is assuming.. but unless the question includes a country, that's the best we have. For this, there is no one of the name who has died in the US in the past 50 yrs. The first poster already ran google, which normally gives clues to other countries.
Thus, none of us have access to something that we can connect to any kind of record. Many times, this is a red flag to me that there is a mispelling possible, particularly if this shows up in a oral family history.
You'll have to back up a step, and reevaluate where you are finding the name. If you know a person with that name, you'll need to check directly. Sounds to me as though it might be Italian