• There are two reasons why there are so many variant spellings of some names.

• First: most of the citizens of the 1600-1800 were illiterate. Of these, a precious few could sign their names.  However, the priests,seminarians,missionaries, monks & nuns were the most educated groups in the citizenry.  Only an elite few were educated beyond what we, today, would consider a basic elementary education.

• Consequently, many of the clerics & notories, who under the French system of  administration were charged with recording "vital statistics" wrote the names as they knew them to be in France, as a precious few of the immigrants/colonists signed them, or as they heard them (phonetically).

• That is why one sees Garau, Garrault, Gareau,Garo, etc... even amongst the sons of a   particualr ancestor.  A good example are the descendants of Louis Houde...some of the   variant spellings found are: Houd,Houle, Ould,Houde,Hood,etc.

• The second reason for variant spellings is: As the colonists migrated within  Nouvelle France/New France & eventually beyond the areas of French-speaking Canada ( ex. to current-day USA, the Caribbean, the West Indies, etc.) recorders of "vital statistics" who were not French speakers, usually spelled names phonetically, or changed  them because they didn't have a clue how to write them.

• The "dit" names have an interesting origin. The English translation of "dit" is "said".  The Colonists of Nouvelle France added "dit" names as distinguishers. A settler might have wanted to differentiate their family from their siblings by taking a "dit" name that described the locale to which they had relocated ( ex: since the Colonists followed the customs of the French feudal system, land was divided amongst the first born sons [primogeniture] . Soon there was not enough land to divide any further.

• Perhaps an adventurous younger son would decide to establish himself, with or without a  family, in another area... say a fertile piece of land near some streams... he might add des ruisseaux (streams/creeks/rivulets) to distinguish himself from his brothers.  When he married,or died, his name might be listed as Houde dit DesRuisseaux, or Desruisseau(s).

• The acquiring of a "dit" name might also be the result of a casual adoption, whereby the person wanted to honor the family who had raised them. Another reason was also to   distinguish themselves by taking as a "dit" name the town or village in France from which they originated... ex: Huret dit Rochefort.

Also Given or First name variations can be added to the form, but please identify them as given names so they are not confused with Surnames. This identification of the Given or First name variations can be placed in the comments section.

Thank you

Surname Variation Form

AFGS would like to thank all volunteers from around the world who help convert the Surname data into a format that allowed the producing of this Surname Variations list.

The original list published on the AFGS website in 1999 involved the converting of over 35,000 names. This is the first update and now includes a large number of new names from new sources. One source is from the names submitted by researchers to us by way of this website. Over 38,000 names were reviewed sorted and duplicates removed to produce this listing.

This listing includes the name variations as they were found. We have included some names with accents.