Origin of the Surname Lavigne - Part 2 Lavigne began as a byname, a dit name in French, to designate one who owned a vineyard. Dit is the past participle of the French verb dire; it means ‘called’ or ‘named.’ The first appearance of the name Lavigne in French wills and parish registers is usually in a form like this: né, fils de Pierre le Gros dit Lavigne ‘born, a son to Big Pete called The Vineyard.’ This implies that this parish held two or more Big Petes. One way to differentiate among them was to add a descriptive about where one lived or what the other owned. In the quoted register entry recording the birth of his son, this Big Peter is identified as one who grew grapes and probably owned his own vineyard. Sometimes within even two or three generations of the beginning of the name, the family would pick the dit name as their legal surname, Lavigne. In other cases the family would take the ancestor’s nickname and become legally la famille Le Gros.
Other early entries are like this: Marcel de la vigne ‘of the vineyard’ may have been the Marcel in that parish who worked picking grapes or making wine. Another recorded early form is Thierry La Vigne ‘Thierry the Vineyard’ is likely to have owned such land. By omitting the French preposition de, the recording priest or monk meant to make the locative “La Vigne” pointed, demonstrative. Thierry was “the vineyard” because he owned it. This early practice was the very opposite of later French naming tricks where de was added to make ordinary names sound aristocratic. So later Germans added von and Dutch speakers added van to outsnoot their neighbours.
Avril Lavigne photo-ops with Pink on the left and Lisa Marie Presley in the center. Next in the history of French last names come Lavigne surnames based on the village or town in which the ancestor lived. There are dozens and dozens of hamlets, towns, hills, crossroads, and whistle-stop places in France called Lavigne. At first there were only first or given names. Then, as European populations increased and as people began to have property to leave to their relatives, it became important to know which precise Pierre was referred to in a will or other legal document. So, in a small town named Lavigne, there might have been two or three men with a very common name like Pierre. To make certain of preventing confusion among them, extra little words or nicknames were added to Pierre. That, in a simplified explanation, is how most last names began. Pierre Lavigne was Pierre from the town of Lavigne, whereas the other Pierre in town was a big man. His nickname became his legal surname: Pierre Le Gros. Lavigne Sometimes a Jewish Surname Lavigne was a common substitute spelling used by French Jews whose previous surname forms might have been Lévi, Lévine, Leven, Laveen, Levien, Leviene, Levigne, Le Vine, La Vine, and even Lhévinne. A variety of motives spurred such name changes. Often a Russian Jewish immigrant to France named Levin became Lavigne simply to make the name appear more French. Sometimes anti-Semitism, both legal and illegal, forced Jews to try to “blend in.” Other families looked upon the name change as a mere orthographical variant. An artist’s conception of the Ark of the Covenant As an ancient Hebrew given name, Levi signifies Levitic descent, that is, supposedly direct in line from Levi, third of the twelve sons of Jacob, and so of the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel. Formerly (but with a diminished role today) the Levites assisted priests in worship. They were custodians of the Tabernacle, the so-called “bodyguards of God” for Levites carried the Ark of the Covenant in holy procession. The section of the Christian Bible called Leviticus, containing details of laws and minutiae of Jewish ritual is a shortening of its name in Latin, Liber Leviticus ‘the book of the Levites.’
of Lavigne Last Name for more on French Canadian "Dit" surnames
© 2005 William Gordon Casselman
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