Mont-Saxonnex
Mont-Saxonnex is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.
Toponymy
Mont-Saxonnex is said to take its name from mons saxorum nigrorum, meaning "mountain of black rocks." Legend has it that a fire in the Middle Ages lasted seven years, turning the rocks as black as coal. Another explanation attributes the name to a Roman named Sersunay. Saxonnex could also come from an Indo-European legend involving Neptune. This legend relates that the region was saved from the overflowing of Lake Bénit by a procession of priests who circled it three times.Mont Saxonnex is attested as Sersenaco in 1339. The derivation -aco is a typically Gaulish location suffix. It is a Celtic place name composed of two roots: serra- "scythe, sickle, billhook" and -senos "ancient, old." In Gaulish, Sersenaco means something like "the domain of the old man with the scythe" or "the domain of the old reaper".
In Franco-Provençal, the name of the commune is written L Mon, according to the spelling of Conflans.