Count: 0 — No verified French last names that start with U meet the project’s strict criteria. Authoritative French sources (INSEE surname frequency lists, civil registries, and standard etymological dictionaries) do not show any established, commonly attested French-family surnames beginning with the letter U that satisfy frequency and verification thresholds. Note that U is an unusually rare initial for native French surnames, so its absence is itself a meaningful pattern.

Understand that several technical and historical reasons explain this gap. Old French and later surname formation favor consonants and certain prefixes, and many names that might look like they start with U are either given names reused as surnames (e.g., Urbain) or are regional and foreign imports (Basque, Spanish, Italian, North African) rather than native French-family names. Data rules also remove obscure, unverified, or extremely rare attestations: the INSEE and civil-register methodology requires attestations and minimum frequency, so isolated or immigrant names are excluded from an “official” A–Z list.

Consider related categories and close matches when researching. Check surnames that begin with Ur- or Uru- (often Basque or Iberian like Urrutia), given-name-derived surnames such as Urbain (more common as a first name), and regional records in Basque, Occitan, and francophone overseas departments where U-initial names occur more often. Consult INSEE frequency tables, departmental civil registers, and standard references (Dauzat, the CNRS name files) to find verified variants or non-French-origin surnames that come closest to the U‑initial category.