One of the many joys (and miseries) of my tenure as a specialist of Louisiana Creole genealogy is tracking individuals due to surname (family name) changes.

The genealogy of Louisiana Creoles is unique in America due to the oft changing administrations during the colonial periods, and also that for a long time during the national period, Louisiana Creoles continued to speak their own community languages (French, Kouri-Vini, and Spanish) in a sea of Americans, as well as their staunch allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church.

This means that an individual named Jacques LEVERT can be found in records in Louisiana as Santiago VERDE, Jack GREEN, James GREEN, as well as Jacques LEVERT, depending on the language of the cleric or governmental official writing the record. Then there are many diminutives used in all 3 of these languages, as well as in Kouri-Vini, for the forenames or given names of the individual. My commitment has always been to provide resources to our people to help them navigate the history and culture of our community, so some time ago I published a glossary of diminutives in the languages historically spoken by and around us.

It doesn’t end there. Our surnames have come from multiple sources, and have undergone many changes since 1684. Some of the surnames were inherited from Europe, while others are uniquely Louisiana Creole. By Louisiana Creole, I mean that the way they were created and maintained began in Louisiana Creole spaces. Some surnames, as you will discover below, were inherited from Europe, but were creolized in Louisiana. Others are patronymic, deriving from the forename or a male ancestor, or from the diminutive of his forename. Still other surnames are derived from dit-names or aristocratic particle-names.

Below is a small snapshot of the surnames of this character in our genealogical database. If you have others to share, please do not hesitate to respond to this post with the “original” surname, the changes, and citations for us to provide to researchers or to anyone remotely interested.

Creolized surnames

This section highlights a handful of surnames that underwent Creolization in Louisiana. Creolized surnames are family names that came to be pronounced and spelled differently from the country of origin of the surname. In most cases, the surnames changed among Kouri-Vini-speakers. In other cases, Louisiana Creole Hispanophones, and later Americans, played their role in name shifting. The process leading to the names as we know them today, I refer to as Creolization.

BIAGAS/BIAGASSE The BIAGAS (also spelled BIAGASSE) family of south Louisiana descends from a Texano named Gaspar VIEGAS, who was born at San Antonio, Texas, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1799.VIEGAS, also spelled VILLEGAS /bee ay gahs/, was and remains a common enough surname in the Hispanophone (Spanish-speaking) world.

Gaspar was the son of Tomás VIEGAS and María Geneveva AUÍSA. Like many Texanos, he ended up in southwest Louisiana in the 1840s, where he began a longterm relationship with Marie Marcélite BELLARD, sometimes identified as Marie Marcélite CHRÉTIEN, a Louisiana Creole from Bayou Plaquemines-Brûlées, present-day Church Point. The couple formally tied the knot on 23 May 1874 by a cleric from the Église Saint-Landry, which then served the vast area encompassing St. Landry, part of Evangeline, Acadia, and Jefferson Davis civil parishes. By then, they had 3 sons: Edmond, Gustave “Billy,” and Jacques Félix, all 3 of whom used the Creolized version of their father’s surname, BIAGAS.

VIZOT /vee zoh/ & VIZOTTE /vee zoht/I first encountered this surname in an 1806 baptismal record at Iglesia San Luis de la Nueva Orleáns, now the Cathedral-Basilica of St Louis King of France, in New Orleans. One member of the family, appears as a godfather (baptismal sponsor) to Marie AUBRY, fille de couleur libre, daughter of Martin Nicolas AUBRY and Marguerite Cécile ROBIN – mulâtresse libre.

The parrain, Zelestino BIZOT, as his name appears in the Spanish-language baptism, interested me, as I thought he would provide leads on Marguerite Cécile ROBIN.

It turned out that he was of no consanguineous relationship to her or to Martin Nicolas AUBRY. But his surname is one of many that arrived in Louisiana from France, as VIZOT, and had been Creolized – in this case Hispanized – to BIZO and BIZOT. In Spanish, the consonants B and V are commonly interchanged in words and names. Célestin VIZOT was an homme de couleur, who had been emancipated in 1777 at Spanish New Orleans, by his father, Josef BIZOT [Jean Joseph VIZOT], a Frenchman. His emancipation names his mother as Magdalena, as well as siblings Clarice, Maneta [Anne “Manette”], and Santiago [Jacques]. In Magdeleine VIZOT’s last will and testament, she states that she was emancipated by the widow of Étienne LEMAIRE, and bore several natural children for Jean Joseph VIZOT, including Célestin. In fact, the widow of Étienne LEMAIRE sold Magdaleine to Jean Joseph VIZOT, who emancipated her and their daughter Clarice in 1778 at Spanish New Orleans.

Célestin’s father, Joseph VIZOT, known in Spanish as José/Josef BIZOT/BIZO/BISO, was born at Peyret, Provence, France, and died in Spanish New Orleans on 3 July 1799 at the age of 70.

BIZOTTE and VIZOTTE are also commonly seen in records for the family. These Creolized versions are typical of many French-origin forenames and surnames ended with a T which is preceded by a vowel. Doucette and Clète are good examples of this trend.

BOUGÈRE /boo zhair/For years I wracked my brains trying to figure out the origins of the BOUGÈRE family. I had encountered two members of the family, sisters Charlotte and Rosette or Rose-Aimée, who both bore children for François FRILOT – quarteron libre, a native of La Côte-aux-Puces in the Attakapas District, today known as Grand-Marais in Iberia Parish. Rosette bore him 3 known children (Carmésile, Francillette, and Louis Hilaire), while Charlotte had 5 for him (François fils, Éloi, Charlotte, Pierre, and Prosper). All carried the FRILOT surname.François had been born to the longterm relationship between Claude FRILOT dit St-Éloi and Rosette BOUTTÉ – mulâtresse affranchie, both natives of French New Orleans, and later residents at La Côte-aux-Puces.

From baptisms of the children, I knew that Rosette and Charlotte were daughters of Georges and Marie Séraphine BOUGÈRE – both gens de couleur libres. But no further clues beyond them can be found in Attakapas/St. Martin/Iberia Parish records.

I then turned to the New Orleans sacramental and civil records. It turned out to the be right place to look. I discovered Séraphine’s family, with the surname spelled BOUGIÈRE, BOUCHER, BUCHER, among other spellings. One in particular, BEAULIEU, piqued my interest. What I found out astonished me: in fact, Marie Séraphine BOUGÈRE had been born in Spanish New Orleans on 22 Jan 1793 to a mulata libre named Rosa [Rose] BOUGÈRE. No evidence who Georges is but I did locate Rose and her sister’s emancipation: in 1776, at Spanish New Orleans, Alexandro CHAUVIN emancipated two young mulata sisters named María Serafina (age 3) Rosa (age 1 1/2). Their mother, Carlota [Charlotte], is mentioned in the emancipation.

Alexandro CHAUVIN’s name offered clues. He was a son of the well-known Montreal-born Nicolas CHAUVIN de la Frênière, a militia captain in early French New Orleans and member of the Conseil Supérieur, and Marie Marguerite LE SUEUR, commonly used “de la Frênière,” “Boisclair” and “Beaulieu” as appendages to their CHAUVIN surname.

It now made sense why I saw Séraphine’s family also using BEAULIEU – BOUGÈRE must be a Creolized version of BEAULIEU – in some parts of Louisiana, the surname BEAULIEU is Creolized to /bowl yay/, and the L followed by an I in French names sometimes did yield a French G or J /zhay/ sound, because in French in this case, LI is pronounced like an LY, and the tongue hits the roof of the mouth in the same place when pronouncing LY and G/J. This process in linguistics is known as palatization.

The COLLINS family of New Iberia, descending from Georgina GATHE. Georgina bore several children for Galbert CALAIS, who was from Anse-la-Butte, between Breaux Bridge and Lafayette. When she, their 5 children, as well as her commonlaw husband, Charles YARBER or YARBROUGH, and their children, moved to New Iberia, the CALAIS children came to use the Anglicized COLLINS. The surname CALAIS is pronounced /kah lay/ and COLLINS, when pronounced by native Creolophones and Francophones, gives /kah lan/ (the an is nasalized, like “in” is in both Kouri-Vini and French).

The DÉCULUS family from the greater St. Landry Parish area, descend from a Frenchman named Élie LUCULLUS and Julienne WILTZ – a griffonne libre from St. Martin Parish. In St. Martin Parish, their children continuously used the father’s French version of the surname – LUCULLUS /lew kew lews/. But their only son, named for his father, moved to St Landry Parish in 1851, when he married Angèle Bélair FONTÉNOT –quarteronne libre, a native of that parish. From year 1900, onward, their children and grandchildren, the only descendants of genitors Élie and Julienne to carry the surname, used the Creolized DÉCULUS /day kee lees/, which later anglicized to /deh kyuh luhs/. The consonants D and L both are known in linguistics as dentals, because when pronounced, they hit the the back of the upper teeth. The transformation of the first U to É is a common occurrence in the evolution of Kouri-Vini. For all sorts of complex reasons, the French U is difficult for many speakers of other languages to pronounce. In Creole Louisiana, it most often transforms into a Kouri-Vini I, pronounced /ee/, and on occasion, became É /ay/. We see this as a rule in Kouri-Vini, but it is also common in Louisiana French. E.g. the French word for butt or ass is cul /kew/. In Louisiana French, at least in Têche Country, it is pronounced tchi /chee/. A similar process transformed the French queue /kuh/ (tail) to tchœ /chuh/.

DEROUEN The current spelling of the DEROUEN /dur wawn/ or /dair wan/ leads us to believe that the family originates in the French city of Rouen. It’s a misnomer, though. In fact, the surname Creolized to DEROUEN from DROUIN /droo wan/. Southwest Louisiana’s earliest DEROUEN ancestors are Joseph DORUAN, a native of Saint-Michel Church-Parish, Québec City, Canada. He first married Charlotte CAMPO, then remarried, at the Côte Acadienne, Geneviève HÉBERT, an Acadian, also widowed, on 29 Nov 1775 at the Église de l’Ascension in Donaldsonville. Their family ended up at the Attakapas District, at La Petite-Anse, present-day Iberia Parish, by 1800, leaving numerous descendants. There was a second, and younger ancestor, who also married at the Ascension Post and ended up living at La Petite-Anse. Joseph, who was born at the Poste de Saint-Vincennes-du-Ouabache, present-day Indiana,son of Juan Louis [Jean-Louis] DE ROHAN [sic] and Isabel [Élisabeth] LATOUR married 22 April 1792 Angélique RICHARD, daughter of Joseph RICHARD and Inés [Agnès] MANUEL. The couple’s first child born in the Attakapas District were twins Claire Eugénie and Henriette DEROUAN [sic], born 15 Jan 1800 and baptized in 1802 at their parents’ place at La Petite-Anse, present-day Iberia Parish. DROUIN is sometimes used in the original records for the family of the two Josephs, alongside other phonetic renderings in French. So, the DEROUENs should look to Québec for their ancestors, not the city of Rouen in France.

Additional surnames that Creolized, Americanized, or changed entirely in our database

FREDDY/FRETTY from FREYTET/FRÉTÉ/FRETTÉ (Avoyelles, Evangeline, Acadia, St Landry, Iberia Parishes) GARY from GARRIGUES-FLAUJAC (only a St Landry Parish family) GASCHE from GATHE/GAAT (St Martin, Lafayette, Iberia Parishes) LILLY from LELEUX (Only the family of Octave LILLY and Adélaïde SPARROW of Belle-Place, Iberia Parish) MALVEAUX from SÉMÈRE (St Martin and Iberia Parishes) SIMMEZIN from SIMPSON (St Martin Parish) WELCOME from BIENVENU (Iberia and Lafayette Parishes) ROMÈRE from ROMERO (Iberia Parish) VIATOR from VILLATORO (Iberia Parish) RODRIGUE from RODRÍGUEZ/RODRÍGUES MORALE from MORALES CASTILLE from CASTILLO/CASTEYO SCHEXNAYDRE from SCHEXNAYDER VILTZ and WILTZ from WISSE DARBONNE from D’ERBANNE or TERREBONNE

Dit-Names & Particule-Names

Dit-names are aliases that individuals and families used from the late Middle Ages through the early 19th century. They were not aliases in the way that Americans think of aliases today. They were kinds of identifiers or nicknames, that often denoted the individual’s occupation or the residence location of families.

Particules were names that royals, aristocrats, and elites used during the Middle Ages and throughout the colonial era, so long as kingdoms, dukedoms, and principalities existed. These names always followed the individual’s surname, and usually was identified by de, d’, du, de la, des in French, or de, del, de la, de los in Spanish, followed by the particule. Most commonly, particules were names of the fiefdoms, large estates or land concessions granted to individuals or families. Many of these ended up in colonial Louisiana and some of the particules became surnames for some families.

Beaulieu from the CHAUVIN de/dit Beaulieu family (Orleans, Pointe-Coupée Parishes)

from the CHAUVIN de/dit Beaulieu family (Orleans, Pointe-Coupée Parishes) Boisdoré from the BARBEAU dit Boisdoré family (Orleans, St Martin, Lafayette Parishes)

from the BARBEAU dit Boisdoré family (Orleans, St Martin, Lafayette Parishes) Delacroix from DU SUAU de la Croix

from DU SUAU de la Croix Despanet from the DE BLANC d’Espanet family (St Martin, Iberia, Lafayette Parishes)

from the DE BLANC d’Espanet family (St Martin, Iberia, Lafayette Parishes) Devézin from the OLIVIER de Vézin family (Iberia and St Mary Parishes)

from the OLIVIER de Vézin family (Iberia and St Mary Parishes) Dumartraît from the LAMBERT du Martraît family (St Martin Parish)

from the LAMBERT du Martraît family (St Martin Parish) Fossor from the MOGNAC dit Fossor family (St Landry, Acadia, Evangeline Parishes)

from the MOGNAC dit Fossor family (St Landry, Acadia, Evangeline Parishes) St-André from the BOTQUIN dit St-André family (Natchitoches, St. Landry, Acadia Parishes)

from the BOTQUIN dit St-André family (Natchitoches, St. Landry, Acadia Parishes) Valière/Vallières from the DAUTERIVE de Valière/Vallières family (Iberia Parish)

Patronymic



These surnames, which evolved from forenames (given names) of a male genitor, can be found throughout the state’s Creole community.

Forename

Alexander from Alexandre

Anthony from Antoine (Iberia Parish)

Antoine

Archangel from Archange

Archon from Archange

August from Auguste

Augustine from Augustin

Azor

Balthazar/Baltasard

Baptiste/Batiste

Barnabé/Bernabé

Bélisaire/Bélizaire

Blaise

Bonhomme

Casimir/Cassimire/Cassimère

Celestine from Célestin

Charles

Chevalier

Glaud from Claude

Dalcourt/Darcourt

Dominique

Donato/Donatto

Esprit

Francis from François and Francisco

Francisque from Francisco

François

George from Georges

Gody/Goddie from Godefroy/Godefroid

Grégoire

Guillaume

Henry

Hilaire/Hélaire

Honoré

Hyppolite

Isidore

Jack/Jacques

Jean

Jean-Batiste/Baptiste

Johnlewis from Jean-Louis

Jeanlouis from Jean-Louis

Jean-Louis

Jean-Marie

Jones from Jean (St Martin Parish)

Joseph

Julien

Jupiter

Leopaul from Léopold

Lindor

Lewis from Louis

Magloire

Matthew/Matthews from Mathieu/Mathé

Mitchell from Michel

Narcisse

Nicholas from Nicolas

Paul

Peters from Pierre (St Martin and Iberia Parishes)

Philip/Phillip/Philips from Philippe

Pierre

Pierre-Auguste

Raymond

Réné/René

Sam from Sem

Simon

Théodile

Théodule

Valère

Valéry

Valsin/Valsain

Valerian from Valérien

Victorian from Victoriano

Vital

William/Williams from Guillaume

Zeno from Zénon

Zénon

Matronyms

These are similar to patronyms, except that they derive from a female ancestor’s forename. These are less common in Creole Louisiana, but are normative in the Creole Caribbean and Indian Ocean.

Vénus

Diminutives

Diminutives are nicknames deriving from the forename, or are nicknames used exclusively for a person carrying a specific forename. These are common in all western languages, as well as other languages around the world. Some of these became surnames in Creole Louisiana, also.

Bastian/Bastain/Bastien from Sébastien (Iberia Parish)

Charlot from Charles

Jacquot/Jaco/Jacot from Jacques

Perro/Perrot from Pierre

Polite from Hyppolite

– Christophe Landry