Bambecque

Commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Bambecque Bambeke
Commune
The church in Bambecque
Coat of arms
Location of Bambecque
(2020–2026)		Grégoire Francke^[1]
Area ¹	11.81 km² (4.56 sq mi)
Population (2021)^[2]	832
• Density	70/km² (180/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	59046 /59470
Elevation	2–24 m (6.6–78.7 ft) (avg. 8 m or 26 ft)
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Bambecque (French pronunciation: [bɑ̃bɛk]; Dutch: Bambeke) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.^[3]

Etymology

Bambecque has historically been attested as Banbeca in 1164. The toponym Bambecque is of Germanic origin, deriving from a Low German dialect, ultimately from Proto-West-Germanic *ban. Within the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments, the Germanic hydronym *-bak(i) entered the French language via Low German, and took on two forms: the Germanic form -beek and Romance -becque (also -bec, -becques).^[4]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	642	—
1975	614	−0.64%
1982	614	+0.00%
1990	589	−0.52%
1999	655	+1.19%
2009	719	+0.94%
2014	747	+0.77%
2020	822	+1.61%
Source: INSEE^[5]

Heraldry

The arms of Bambecque are blazoned :
Argent, a lion sable, armed and langued gules. (The arms of Bambecque, Crochte, Killem and Maing are essentially the same)

Points of interest

Jardin botanique du Val d'Yser

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ INSEE commune file
^ Caljouw, William Robert (1981). Germanic elements in French Toponymy (Thesis). University of British Columbia. pp. 148, 151. doi:10.14288/1.0094985. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE