Notice: This webinar is 1.5 hours

The French-Canadian population has been distinguished from its beginnings by a particular phenomenon called the nom-dit,
a designation which in many cases has established itself as the alternative, main or even unique name of families in the
St. Lawrence Valley. The pioneer brought with him a family name but also a profession that traditionally bestowed an oral
nickname to its practitioners. Without being specific to New France, this anthroponymic trait carried over from Europe found
in the Laurentian colony conditions favorable to a new pattern of inheritance that became extensive: until the 20th century,
the designations of a large number of families maintained in unpredictable alternation both the civil name and the dit name.

The military constituted about half of Old Canada’s French settlers and the nom de guerre, one dominant type of dit name,
consequently weighed on the rooting of this tradition. The preservation of service names by the demobilized soldiers, and
soon-to-be inhabitants, found in this prolonged neighborhood a reinforcing factor. The military’s cultural influence on the
new society can be seen in the family-name extension of this professional use in other trades such as among masons or
carpenters. Like the soldier, the Ancien Régime’s craftsmen used to adopt within their profession a nom de compagnon
(trade name) whose shedding occurred when they returned to civilian life. New France’s newly-formed population fostered
instead the coexistence of both surnames as well as their preservation. A naming duality thus took hold until modern
requirements of vital records pressured families to side with one or the other. Only a handful of compounded surnames
escaped this fate, such as Gérin-Lajoie or Canac-Marquis.

Pierre Gendreau-Hétu studied linguistics at the Université de Montréal. His graduate research focused on writing systems
and their historical typologies. Questions of onomastics subsequently caught the attention of this independent researcher,
notably the origin and evolution of surnames in French Canada.

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