Louisiana French Name Guidelines

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Louisiana Project Page > Project Teams

French Name Data Fields

Louisiana has a substantial number of families with French ancestry due primarily to its origin as a French colony and its later influx of French Acadian refugees. Family names can be a source of confusion for people who are not familiar with their historical usage. For early French names, the Louisiana Project follows guidelines posted by the Quebecois Project and the Acadians Project. Please review the details on their pages. In summary,

• The particules de, des or du are to be included in the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) field when appropriate. In general, these should only be included when a birth or baptism record provides evidence of it. It is not automatically part of the LNAB just because the father used it.
• "Dit" or "dite" names do not go in the LNAB field. Instead, they should be entered in either the "Current Last Name," "Other Last Names," or "Nicknames" field as applicable. They never go in the suffix field. (See also WikiTree's policy on Name Fields.)
• The "First Name" field should be used for the full given name. The French prenom is defined as "given name" or "name that comes before the family name." The French had no concept of first and middle names. For example, Marie Louise would all be entered in the First Name field, with the Middle Name field left blank and marked as "no middle name."
• Do not use hyphens in the given name. This format was not in use by the early French. Hyphens are simply not found in the records. Hyphens have also interfered in WikiTree searching and sorting functions. When creating new profiles, a name that is otherwise identical may not show as a match, causing duplicates. The Louisiana Project recommends not using them.
• Do not use husband's surname in Current Last Name field for the wife. The early French women did not take their husband's surname at marriage, keeping their own names throughout their lives. Please do not put their husband's last name in their "Current Last Name," unless you find an actual record that shows it was used (usually not until after the mid-1800s). It is acceptable to put the husband's surname in the "Other Last Names" field if you want it available for search purposes.
• Do not use Jr, Sr, I, II, III, etc. in the suffix field. The early French did not use these qualifiers. WikiTree policy states that they should only be entered if the person actually used these terms during their lifetime, as shown in records. Otherwise, the use of Roman numerals is considered to be a "personal numbering system," and is not allowed.
• Do not use "fils" in the suffix field. This does not have the same meaning as "Jr" as some people have mistakenly believed. It generally means "son" or "boy." Likewise, "filles" usually means "daughter" or "girl." These terms do not belong in the name fields.
• Acadian name conventions - Acadian families who were deported from Acadie beginning in 1755, and subsequently emigrated to Louisiana beginning around 1764, will use the naming convention established by the Acadians Project on their Acadian Standard Names page. The family surname should remain with that spelling for at least 1 or 2 generations, after which census workers and parish priests began adopting a different spelling. Some WikiTree genealogists will be able to find documents that prove how the family spelled its name but that is rare. Most people could neither read nor write and spelling did not matter to them.