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re: Most Common Cajun Surnames
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:31 pm to Midtiger farm
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:31 pm to Midtiger farm
Technically you are correct but historically the rural “creoles” in southwest Louisiana were likely just considered the same as Cajuns.
quote:
The first usage of the term "Cajun" came about during the American Civil War, during the Union's invasion of French Louisiana.[8]
After conquering Vermilionville — the modern city of Lafayette, the hub of Cajun country — in 1863, Lieutenant George C. Harding of the 21st Indiana Infantry used the term "Cajun" to describe the region's inhabitants:
I will try and tell what a Cajun is. He is a half-savage creature, of mixed French and Indian blood, lives in swamps and subsists by cultivating small patches of corn and sweet potatoes. The wants of the Cajun are few, and his habits are simple... I can not say that we were abused by the Cajuns.[8]
quote:
After the Civil War, urban Creoles began referring to the peasant class (petits habitants) as "Cajuns".
Cajuns inhabited the "Cajun Countries" of Mississippi and Louisiana.[9][10][11][12]
At the same time, "Creole" increasingly referred to Creoles of the middle class (bourgeoisie) or aristocratic class (grands habitants), and served as a designation for inhabitants of the "Creole Cities": Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana.[13][14][15]
Carl Brasseaux notes in Acadian to Cajun, Transformation of a People, that:
Cajun was used by Anglos to refer to all persons of French descent and low economic standing, regardless of their ethnic affiliation. Hence poor Creoles of the bayou and prairie regions came to be permanently identified as Cajun. The term Cajun thus became a socioeconomic classification for the multicultural amalgam of several culturally and linguistically distinct groups.
This post was edited on 3/31/26 at 2:32 pm
3
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:33 pm to justaniceguy
It is possible and likely that some of the creoles of NOLA who looked down upon Cajuns were also descendants of Acadians who were expelled, but things had changed in the period between those events.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:36 pm to justaniceguy
In Evangeline Parish it would be:
1. Fontenot
2. Vidrine
3. Ardoin
1. Fontenot
2. Vidrine
3. Ardoin
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:41 pm to Rouxdee
quote:20/20 for me.
Do you personally know someone or used to know someone from all 20 surnames on the list?
I’m 18-20. Don’t personally know a Thibodeaux or a Benoit.
How do you not know a Thibodeaux or a Benoit in South Louisiana?
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:51 pm to LSUbub12
quote:When I was a young lawyer, I appeared in court in Evangeline. The judge knew me and called out my name before the hearings started. A very old man came up to talk to me because I have a very Evangeline Parish name. In the discussion, I mentioned my mother came from a Fontenot/Tate family. He told me there are so many Fontenots due to the fact that the first one had a huge family of mostly boys. Those boys then had a bunch of boys. It went from there.
It seems like every 3rd person in Evangeline and St. Landry parish is a Fontenot and just about every person has Fontenot blood in them.
My grandfather on my father's side was in a family where 5 of them married Soileaus from the same family. Double first cousins running around errywhere.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 2:54 pm to justaniceguy
quote:
Technically you are correct but historically the rural “creoles” in southwest Louisiana were likely just considered the same as Cajuns.
Right, I have a French last name and I’m from Vermilion Parish. Basically everyone just assumes it’s Cajun, even though it’s actually Creole (directly from France).
Posted on 3/31/26 at 3:01 pm to Epic Cajun
Have you ever researched your ancestry? Do you know if they come over directly from France or if they lived in one of the other colonies first? Would be cool to have ancestors that lived in Guadeloupe or one of the others
Posted on 3/31/26 at 3:41 pm to justaniceguy
quote:
Have you ever researched your ancestry? Do you know if they come over directly from France or if they lived in one of the other colonies first? Would be cool to have ancestors that lived in Guadeloupe or one of the others
I’ve done some cursory research. Back in the 1600-1700’s my family name was the German version of the current French name. After the Palatinate Exodus my ancestors moved to France and ultimately moved to St. Charles Parish (Des Allemands specifically, I guess they were some of “the Germans”), by 1800 they started going by the French version of the name. I assume they did it to assimilate into the culture, but I obviously don’t know that for certain. They originally made it to the US in 1722, which is about 40 years before the Cajuns.
ETA: so I guess after explaining that, it’s actually a “fake” French name
Though there are a ton of people in France with the last name. Fewer than 4k here in the US, over 60k in France.
This post was edited on 3/31/26 at 4:13 pm
Posted on 3/31/26 at 3:50 pm to justaniceguy
quote:
historically the rural “creoles” in southwest Louisiana were likely just considered the same as Cajuns.
Considered by a general from Indiana? Some people might've considered that but that doesn't mean its correct and the "Creoles" weren't just of French ancestry - many were Spanish and German
"if your ancestors were from Nola or surrounding area you are a creole, if from swla you are probably cajun"
This is your direct quote - no matter what some people thought of rural people, it is totally wrong
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:03 pm to S
quote:quite a few arrived same time as Acadians. and some of those other "cajun" names are actually take offs from german surnames.
Romero is a Spanish surname that’s popular in cajun country.
This post was edited on 3/31/26 at 4:08 pm
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:10 pm to Missouri Waltz
I know a million Jarreaus, and none are related to each other lol.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:10 pm to Midtiger farm
I guess you just ignored the second quote?
I will provide more proof.
LINK
Click the link above for the “difference between creoles and Cajuns” (and it also goes into detail about all the things you have mentioned, including creoles living in southwest louisiana and Germans and Spanish)
This is taken from a book written in the 1950s by a self proclaimed Creole who wrote all about Louisiana in the book.
And if he was saying this as late as the 1950s I can only imagine what the creoles were saying 90 years before, right after the civil war.
History isn’t always so kind.
I will provide more proof.
LINK
Click the link above for the “difference between creoles and Cajuns” (and it also goes into detail about all the things you have mentioned, including creoles living in southwest louisiana and Germans and Spanish)
This is taken from a book written in the 1950s by a self proclaimed Creole who wrote all about Louisiana in the book.
And if he was saying this as late as the 1950s I can only imagine what the creoles were saying 90 years before, right after the civil war.
History isn’t always so kind.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:11 pm to Midtiger farm
quote:
If New Orleans or the general area then you are technically Creole and not Cajun
This is my direct quote. I didn’t even mention southwest Louisiana being cajun in it.
This post was edited on 3/31/26 at 4:14 pm
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:20 pm to Midtiger farm
I would think, if we are being accurate, nobody today is really a Cajun or Creole anymore.
French descended Louisianans likely have ancestors who came from France, other colonies, or were Acadian, or at least 2/3. Many obviously are part Spanish, German, Irish, and perhaps even Anglo. So what is a Cajun and what is a Creole in the year 2026?
I think geography is probably the most meaningful factor when everybody is mixed with the different groups that came. Of course I don’t think many white French Louisianans even call themselves Creole anymore. Black people have kind of taken that name (at least in the common view of people from other states). If I tried to explain this to anybody i know in Texas it would be in one ear and out the other.
French descended Louisianans likely have ancestors who came from France, other colonies, or were Acadian, or at least 2/3. Many obviously are part Spanish, German, Irish, and perhaps even Anglo. So what is a Cajun and what is a Creole in the year 2026?
I think geography is probably the most meaningful factor when everybody is mixed with the different groups that came. Of course I don’t think many white French Louisianans even call themselves Creole anymore. Black people have kind of taken that name (at least in the common view of people from other states). If I tried to explain this to anybody i know in Texas it would be in one ear and out the other.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:21 pm to Epic Cajun
Yep - tons of those German-based last names that got “frenchified.” Back in the day, the Des Allemands phone book was flooded with Dufrenes and Mathernes, probably still is.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 4:33 pm to justaniceguy
quote:
I will provide more proof.
LINK
Click the link above for the “difference between creoles and Cajuns” (and it also goes into detail about all the things you have mentioned, including creoles living in southwest louisiana and Germans and Spanish)
This is taken from a book written in the 1950s by a self proclaimed Creole who wrote all about Louisiana in the book.
And if he was saying this as late as the 1950s I can only imagine what the creoles were saying 90 years before, right after the civil war.
History isn’t always so kind.
nothing in those pages proves you are right. because you are dead wrong
yea Nola elites might've called every rural person in LA "cajun" that doesn't mean it's the correct definiton of who the "creoles" and "cajuns" actually were or are today
Are your ancestors from southwest Louisiana or New Orleans? If New Orleans or the general area then you are technically Creole and not Cajun
This is actually your exact quote, if you didn't want to relate swla to cajun why did you ask if his ancestors were from there?
- so a Benoit who's family settled in Chalmette after coming from Nova Scotia is a "creole" just because they settled near Nola?
Posted on 3/31/26 at 5:01 pm to Missouri Waltz
No Leleux or Chaisson.
Posted on 3/31/26 at 6:13 pm to Missouri Waltz
I said Landry and Broussard next without looking.
I nailed it. I have so many damn Broussard’s in my contacts.
I nailed it. I have so many damn Broussard’s in my contacts.
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