Dictionary of French Family Names in North America: Onomastics and Genealogy

Marc Picard

Sep 2020 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

This dictionary contains data not only on the origins of French surnames in Québec and Acadia, a great many of which eventually spread to many parts of North America, but also on those which arrived in the United States directly from various French-speaking European and Caribbean countries. In addition to providing the etymology of the original surnames, it also lists the multifarious variants that have developed over the last four centuries. A unique feature of this work in comparison to other onomastics dictionaries is the inclusion of genealogical information on most of the Francophone migrants to this continent, something which has been rendered possible not only by the excellent record-keeping in French Canada since the very beginnings of the colony, but also through the explosion of such data on the internet in the last couple of decades. In sum, this dictionary serves the dual purpose of providing information on the meanings of French family names on the North American continent, as well as on the migrants who brought them there.

About the author

Marc Picard received his MA in Second Language Education and his PhD in Linguistics from McGill University, Canada. He taught linguistics and communication at six French and English universities in Québec for many years, and he has published extensively in linguistics and onomastics. He is the author of dozens of articles in these areas as well as a number of books, including Dictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français: anthroponymie et généalogie, Dictionary of Americanized French-Canadian Family Names: Onomastics and Genealogy, On the Problematic Surnames in the Dictionary of American Family Names, Flapping in North American English: A Complete Guide for ESL Teachers, The Comparative Phonetics of English and French, Principles and Methods in Historical Phonology: From Proto-Algonkian to Arapaho, and An Introduction to the Comparative Phonetics of English and French in North America.