Cajun Name Generator

Cajun names come from the Acadians, French colonists expelled from Nova Scotia in the 1750s who resettled in the bayous and prairies of south Louisiana. Their surnames are the roll call of Acadiana today: Boudreaux, Thibodeaux, Hébert, Landry, LeBlanc, Broussard, Guidry, Fontenot, Trahan, Arceneaux and Comeaux. Many kept a spelling unique to Louisiana, where the French -eau ending was expanded to -eaux (Boudreaux rather than the Canadian Boudreau, Comeaux rather than Comeau), and a few families of German, Spanish and Native origin were absorbed and Frenchified, which is why Schexnayder, Romero, Segura and Huval count as fully Cajun.

Given names shifted over the generations. Nineteenth-century Cajuns carried ornate French saints' names and old-fashioned favorites such as Alcide, Onésime, Placide, Théophile, Ulysse, Clothilde, Azélie, Philomène and Marie-Louise. The twentieth century brought Anglo names like Wilson, Dudley, Curtis and Ruby, and today's children in Lafayette and Houma are often Kolby, Cade, Brandi and Kayla. Nicknames are their own tradition: the prefix T- or Tee (from petit) marks a junior or a small one, so T-Boy, T-Jean and Tee-Paul are common, and an uncle is Nonc.

A good Cajun name pairs one of these given-name eras with an -eaux, -ot or -ry surname and reads naturally in both English and French, since most Cajun families switched to English mid-century while keeping their names' French pronunciation (Hébert is "AY-bear", Thibodeaux "TIB-uh-doh").