Thank you ! very interesting. Noel.

Palmer’s antecedents could have been English of course and moved to France.

One word for “crankcase” in French is a “carter” pronounced “carterre”.  Apparently a Mr Carter invented a tin casing to go round a bicycle chain to keep long petticoats from getting caught, and of course it kept grit off the chain too so it lasted longer.  It caught on in France and other casings enclosing bits of mechanism started to be called by the same name.

In Paris once I asked a French colleague over dinner why a nearby metro station was called “Le Plessis Robinson” when Robinson was a very English name.  He challenged me saying no, it was very French.  A quick Google revealed that Robinson Crusoe became a smash hit in France and a bar near Le Plessis, then a village near Paris, was called the “Bar Robinson” to cash in.  When a metro station was built nearby it was then called “Le Plessis Robinson” – so an English word all along.