Benvenuto says that the name of Capet comes from the fact that Hugh, in playing with his companions in boyhood, “was in the habit of pulling off their caps and running away with them.” Ducange repeats this story from an old chronicle, and gives also another and more probable origin of the name, as coming from the hood or cowl which Hugh was in the habit of wearing.

The belief that the family descended from a butcher was current in Italy in Dante’s time. Villani, IV 3, says:⁠—

“Most people say that the father was a great and rich burgher of Paris, of a race of butchers or dealers in cattle.”

“Most people say that the father was a great and rich burgher of Paris, of a race of butchers or dealers in cattle.”