Are there people called Canada? If yes since when ? And where do they live? In Canada or not?
We took our reader at his word. And made some interesting discoveries, with the invaluable help of Pierre Gendreau-Hétu, researcher associated with the Research Program in Historical Demography (PRDH) at the University of Montreal.
First of all: yes, this surname exists. According to the telephone directory (which excludes cell phone numbers), it is worn by only five people in Canada (Mark, Vicki, Mervin, Cecil and Terry Canada), but by more than 2,200 people in the United States, as a result of the famous “great bleeding” which saw a million French Canadians emigrate to New England between 1840 and 1930.
Because it is here, in Quebec, that the name Canada appeared for the first time. And that, as early as 1675, in the Hénault family, who had chosen this word as 2e surname.
You should know that under the French regime, it was customary to give yourself a second surname according to the profession you practiced. This tradition of the “dit-name” will continue after the conquest, without systematic link with the profession, but quite simply by habit or to better distinguish his family line.
Names like Gérin-Lajoie, Beaugrand-Champagne or Canac-Marquis would be vestiges of this binomic model.
Thus in 1675, a French soldier named Jacques Hénault, soldier of the regiment of Carignan-Salières, a company of Saurel (Sorel), was granted the “nom-dit” of Canada, which he transmitted to his son Pierre, and so on…
His name appears in particular in a legal document of January 1683, where Gilles Boyvinet, lieutenant-general of Trois-Rivières, condemns “Jacques Eneau dit Canada to pay to the plaintiff, Jean Olivier, seven bushels of wheat”. Which leads one to believe that this Canada was not a saint…
“In general, the anthroponymic registration numbers (La Fleur, La Verdure, La Jeunesse, etc.) were selected from a traditional list,” points out Pierre Gendreau-Hétu.
PHOTO BRIGITTE BESSON, PROVIDED BY PIERRE GENDREAU-HÉTU
Pierre Gendreau-Hétu, associate researcher in the historical demography research program at the Université de Montréal
Why did Jacques Hénault inherit this unique surname in the ranks of the French army of the Ancien Régime? Mystery. But language is a craft and obviously there was room for improvisation.
Pierre Gendreau-Hétu, associate researcher in the historical demography research program at the Université de Montréal
Unless I am mistaken, the Hénault family will be the only ones to bear this name. Canada disappears from the civil registers of the province around 1840, which corresponds to the first years of the Quebec exodus in New England and probably explains its current presence in the United States.
All American Canadas would be descendants of Jacques Hénault.
Because they came from Quebec…
The origin of “Quebec” is also based on a so-called name.
The first attestation of the surname, however, does not date from 1850, as we had written, but from 1691 (!) with the appearance of a certain “Lemoine dit Québec”, originally from Saint-Thual-Treguer, in Brittany . This strain will however remain isolated and apparently without lineage.
The first Quebecs to have really “swarmed” would therefore be the “Migneron dit Québec” family, which appeared in 1792 with a certain “François Migneron dit Québec”. Then the “Lavallée dit Québec” family – mentioned in our initial research – which appeared in 1809 with “Michel Kébec Lavallée”, a citizen of Verchères and a farmer by trade.
IMAGE FROM THE POPULATION REGISTER OF OLD QUÉBEC
Baptismal certificate of Michel Amable Kébec, where the surname Lavallée dit Kébec appears for the first time, in 1809
“We know that this strain has been perpetuated until now, in English Canada in particular. While I do not believe that Migneron did the same”, suggests Pierre Gendreau-Hétu.
Note: François Migneron and Michel Lavallée came respectively from Sainte-Foy and Saint-François-de-l’Île-d’Orléans, in the Quebec region. This probably explains this choice of name-dit, once they had moved to the Montreal area. “It was in reference to their origin,” confirms Mr. Gendreau-Hétu.
IMAGE FROM THE POPULATION REGISTER OF OLD QUÉBEC
Marriage certificate of Catherine Migneron called Quebec, daughter of François Migneron, in 1797
In any case, the surname will disappear from Quebec radar screens in 1909, when it emerges for the last time on the registers, registers that the clergy held with dedication. However, it will continue in the West and in New England, where it still exists today.
From hockey to dancing
Other readers have started us on interesting tracks.
Robert Lemay informed us of the existence of Brian Quebec, a jazz bassist based in Sudbury.
André Bourdage, a sports fan, directed us to Mathew Quebec and Greg Quebec, two hockey players who had a career in the minors, the first from Alberta and the second from Maine.
Joël Drapeau launched us, for his part, on the trail of a certain Nicolas Québec, a pioneer of classical dance who worked with the Russian ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas and the American Ballet Theater in the 1940s.
“Of course, it was a stage pseudonym, a common thing at the time,” wrote Mr. Drapeau. But by this choice of surname, he was a proud ambassador, throughout the world, of the name of our province, and that, well before the nationalist fever of the 1970s.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE VINCENT-WARREN DANCE LIBRARY
Roland Lorrain in 1962, a man passionate about ballet and words, also known as Nicolas Québec
Real name Roland Lorrain (1919-2012), Nicolas Québec was also a journalist at The Press and at Duty in the 1960s, a detail worthy of interest.
Daniel Navratil, finally, wonders with humor if there are Ontarios in Ontario, Manitobas in Manitoba and Saskatchewans in Saskatchewan. Good question…which we will leave to the care of our colleagues from the western provinces.
Happy Hénault-Canada Day!