Origins of surname
Sauvage is French for 'savage', or 'wild', but in the context of the surname the meaning is probably somewhat less dramatic, and either means an unsociable person, or taking it back to its Latin root sylvestris, meant someone who wandered in the woods.
This is a fairly common name in Normandy.
Early records
The earliest record of Sauvage in Jersey is in a deed dated 1382, in which the Fieu (Fief) au Sauvage is mentioned, among other fiefs: ABSJ, V, 305. In the Terriers des Dimes, St Mary, in 1602, Le Jardin de Jean Sauvage is mentioned: Stevens, Arthur and Stevens, Jersey Place Names 1, 491. The earliest surviving church registers of St Ouen, which adjoins St Mary, mention the surname in the first half of the 17th century, so the family will almost certainly have been living in these north-western parishes in the 16th century. Never very common, the surname does not feature in early Extentes, but these deal with income relating to the Fiefs du Roi, upon which the Sauvages, prior to the 19th century, never lived.
Salvage does appear as early as the 13th century. Although this surname, also found in England, has the same derivation, and is shown in Charles Stevens' Comprehensive list of Jersey surnames as a variant of Sauvage, we are not convinced that it represents earlier members of the same family in Jersey.
There are no baptisms listed under Le Sauvage, a Guernsey variant of the name, until the 19th century, but there is at least one family in which some children were shown as Sauvage and others as Le Sauvage in the baptism registers.
Variants
- Sauvage
- Le Sauvage
- Salvage 13c
- Savage, probably a separate family
Family records
Family trees
- Descendants of Macie Sauvage
- Descendants of Philippe Sauvage
- Descendants of Macie Sauvage - 2
- Descendants of Elie Sauvage
- Descendants of Helier Le Sauvage Added 2016
- Descendants of Laurent Sauvage Added 2021
Church records
Le Sauvage
- Le Sauvage baptisms in Jersey
- Le Sauvage marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Le Sauvage marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Le Sauvage burials in Jersey
Sauvage
- Sauvage baptisms in Jersey
- Sauvage marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Sauvage marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Sauvage burials in Jersey
Newspaper records
Great War service
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Le Sauvage family are now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, dates and reference numbers shown here, it is possible to view a copy of each will. You will have to subscribe to the Archive's online service to do this. To find out more about this collection, which covers the period from 1663 to 1980, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Courtenay Le Sauvage, Corporal of the 19th Corps Field Butchery - 9 July 1917, D/Y/A/76
- Elizabeth Le Sauvage, 9 Ann Street, St Helier, widow of John Edouard Baudains dit La Gerche - 10 April 1931, D/Y/A/91
- Ernest Le Sauvage, Thébaudière, Beaumont, St Peter - 27 December 1939, D/Y/A/105
- Jane Le Sauvage, La Thebeaudiere, Beaumont - 19 September 1945, D/Y/A/114
- Thomas Le Sauvage, St Helier, builder - 27 April 1916, D/Y/A/75
- Edouard Sauvage 2 November 1688 - D/Y/A/3
- Elizabeth Sauvage of St Ouen, bequeaths to the poor of St Ouen, 66 livres 13 sous 4 deniers of the order of the King 19 August 1836 - D/Y/A/23
- Jean Sauvage of St Mary 7 October 1767 - D/Y/A/11
- Jean Sauvage of St Ouen, now of St Peter, bequeaths to the poor of St Ouen £20, desires to be buried in St Ouen's Cemetery - 23 January 1896, D/Y/A/55
- Philippe Sauvage of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £4 of the order of the King 25 March 1824 - D/Y/A/20
- Philippe Sauvage of St Ouen, now of St Helier - 1 May 1878, D/Y/A/40
- Thomas Sauvage, 1 Romney Villas, St Helier bequeaths to the poor of St Ouen £10 - 24 April 1918, D/Y/A/78
- Harriet Sauvage, 2 Haut Bois Villas, Bellozanne Road, St Helier, spinster - 3 June 1907, D/Y/A/66
- Louisa Sauvage, Mrs Falle, 8 Wellington Villas, Stopford Road, St Helier - 13 December 1919, D/Y/A/79
- Anne Sauvage, St Mary - 12 April 1946, D/Y/A/115
- Martha Sauvage, St Ouen, bequeaths to Kenneth Barette and Martha Jane Barette a house and garden situated on the Fief Haubert et Seigneurie, St Ouen - 20 December 1934, D/Y/A/96
- Edward Savage of St Mary's, Nottingham, England, now of St Helier, merchant, desires to be buried in the new churchyard of St Helier 2 March 1852 - D/Y/A/27
- Henry Savage, Lt General and Col Commandant of the Royal Engineers - 17 February 1866, D/Y/A/33
Burial records
Family businesses
1881 advert by Jean Philippe Le Sauvage
Family album

Family gravestones
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Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
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New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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