by Robert Amedee L’Ecuyer

Family Names

Initially, my parents argued over my name. I was born at my Uncle Doc’s house on a Sunday night. My dad had to go back to work. My uncle asked my mom what my name should be. She said Guy Charles. The name had been submitted to the state and been accepted. My dad got back the following weekend. 

He wanted nothing to do with that name. He had my uncle put in Kermit Amedee. Uncle Doc did that, but my mother protested. They discussed it for another week, and ultimately landed on Robert Amedee. So I ended up with three birth certificates. 

None of them were canceled, but I only found out about it later when we went from Cambridge to live in London, Ontario.  We were waiting at Niagara Falls to cross into Canada and my parents found out they couldn’t take me because they had the wrong birth certificate. 

They got in touch with family in Kansas, and Uncle Doc issued the right one. We stayed at Niagara Falls for four days waiting for the document to get there by mail. We were at a motel near the edge of the falls and my dad took me to see. 

We put on raincoats and hats to go under because the water blew back. I didn’t know enough to be scared. I was with my dad so I felt secure.  

Growing up my mother called me Bobby. I became Bob at school and I liked my name. A lot of movie stars were named Robert at the time. 

When my aunts would talk to me about my mother, they referred to her as Kit. I don’t know how she got the nickname but that’s what her four sisters and her mother called her.  

Amedee was my grandfather L’Ecuyer’s first name. He was Amedee Joseph, so I got my middle name from him. Paul’s middle name was specifically to be named after me. We liked that his initials spelled PAL. I wanted to add Ulysses so his initials would spell his name but Barbara didn’t like that much. So he was my PAL. I can’t find the name Amedee anywhere else on the family tree, except for the three of us.  

Our last name, in strict translation, means esquire. It has taken on other meanings as well, like a legal representative or someone who serves with a knight, protecting his flank or rear. It has meaning especially around horses and acrobats in the circus. I have done a few flips in my time! 

Dandu was Mary Goering, and that’s a fairly common name. It was fortunate in WWII that she had her married name. She didn’t have to deal with being German, but her brothers did. One left for Canada, and the other also went some place so he didn’t have to deal with that name. They both eventually came back after the war.  Dandu became Dandu because of Mary Lynne, who later became known as Sister Mary Mel. At age 17 she became a Benedictine nun and that changed her name. 

As a toddler Mary Lynne couldn’t say Grandma, so she said Dandu. That caught on with her brother and all of us. So Dandu meant grandmother.  

Finamore got her name from her grandmother’s middle name. It may have been a last name in the line somewhere.  

Aunt Pinky was baptized Eliza Tilda, after her grandmother. She didn’t like that name, so she chose Elizabeth, and that finally became formalized at some point so her birth certificate says Mary Elizabeth Shepherd. But everyone knew her as Pinky because her hair was a light red color.  

Jackie’s name became Jacqueline but her birth certificate said Baby Girl. Jack had just died and Gram was grieving. She was born at a time when it was not required to have a formal birth certificate. When it was required a couple years later, Jacqueline was added. She was always called Jackie, after her father (whose given name was Albert). Jackie Shepherd married Olaf Bredison. So she became Jackie Bredison.