Does the family name lirette have any native american heritage?

Question

Does the family name lirette have any native american heritage?

Answer 1

It sounds French, which in America could very well mean it does, but it would depend on your own personal lineage. A lot of French in the early American period were trappers and married natives, so a good many Americans of French heritage are also mixed with Native American somewhere down the line. Again, though, the likelihood would depend on how long your family had been here.

Answer 2

This is what Ancestry shows for the name Lirette:

LIRETTE Name Meaning and History

French: of uncertain derivation; possibly related to loir, ‘dormouse’, noted in folk belief for its laziness.

So that surname isn't necessarily Native American, but of course one of your paternal ancestors with that surname might have married someone who had Native American lineage, or it could be elsewhere in your ancestor tree...

Answer 3

As others say, it sounds French.

HOWEVER... I have heard that because of French presence at one time historically, certain Nations (like the 'Sioux', aka Lakota/Dakota/Nakota) actually have a lot of French surnames. Doesn't necessarily mean they all have French blood, but it's perhaps a clue to go on.

Answer 4

Absolutely!

Answer 5

As noted, the name Lirette would appear to be French, and a number of the early French colonists intermarried with people of the First Nations. My mother's ancestors were among these early colonists, and the first eight generations in Canada lived and married in French communities. A recently-discovered third cousin (our great-grandfathers were brothers) was very keen to discover her Native American heritage. She hasn't any, but I do ... both our great-grandfathers married descendants of these "old" French-Canadian families. My great-grandmother, though, had a 4th great-grandmother who was Huron.

A check of early parish records turns up a sizeable family called Lirette / Lyret living at Charlesbourg from about 1721 until 1800 (as far as these particular records go); about 1750, they spread out to other parishes and starting in 1764, there are some Lirettes (parents Joseph, Angelique and M. Josephe) having babies whose baptisms are listed "registre des Hurons de Loretteville" so, depending which particular Lirettes are your ancestors, you may well have Native American heritage.