Talk:Louis Riel Sr.

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what does 'dit l'Irlande' mean?Toyokuni3 (talk) 15:10, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, literally it means "called Ireland". I have never heard this naming practice fully explained, but apparently in early Canada, many habitants became known by nicknames, and eventually their whole families became known by the nickname as well, so it became a kind of alternative to their legal family name. These dit names started getting recorded in official documents along with the legal last name, and in some cases eventually became the legal last name of the family. At least that's my understanding so far. Someone will surely correct me if I'm way off. Indefatigable (talk) 20:07, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

His father was called Ireland because he and his father were born there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.180.128.66 (talk) 16:18, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, his ancestors in the 1600s and before were Irish stemming from Ireland. The name evolved from O'Reilly via Reilly to the francophonized version Riel.