looking out findout about my surname
Hi i was trying to find out what my surname means my family spells it Altidor but i have also seen it spelled Altidore. A majority of those with this last name have Haitian ancestry. i wanted to know if it was french, African, or something else.
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The first thought when considering Haitian names - is it French? I can find no evidence of a French surname, Altidor(e).
It looks Spanish, but no evidence of it as a Spanish surname.
There now follows a heap of speculation -
The Haitian national hero, Toussaint L'Ouverture, was originally called Toussaint Bréda, from the name of the plantation on which he was born. So, were plantation names commonly adopted by freed slaves?
There is a place in Ireland called Altidore. Under the Ancien Régime some Irishmen ("Wild Geese")who had served in the French army obtained property in "Saint Domingue", as Haiti was then called.
Is it possible that some Irish planter named his estate after his birthplace, which name was later adopted as a surname by former plantation workers who had previously not needed a second name?
Not a shred of evidence for any of this, but something to think about.
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