HISTORY OF THE NAME
In France , there are many Perons and Perrons. In the 17th century, the name was spelled Peron with only one « r ». There were also other variants such as: Pairon, Payron, Pesron, Peyron, Pezron.
It is said that the name Perron came from « pierre » or rock, its earliest meaning being « grosse pierre » or large rock. In several languages, Peron is a hypocoristic or diminutive form of Pierre : P(i)eron, P(i)erron denoting a token of affection.
Among the Perrons’ French ancestors, several had surprising nicknames: Flamme; Lagiroflée, Lecarme, Lorrain. In some cases, the surname replaced the name, for example Lavertu. The original names of the Perron ancestors who left descendants are Suire, Dugrenier and Desnoyers.
Nowadays we know that a small branch of Perrons comes from Jacques Desnoyers, and a bigger branch comes from Joseph Dugrenier, but the biggest is that of Daniel Suire.
Daniel Suire
Daniel Suire was born out of wedlock 25 November 1638 and baptized the following 26 December in Dompierre castle. His parents, François Peron and Jeanne Suire, were protestants from La Rochelle. François did not marry Jeanne but took the child to his home when he was 8 to teach him the trade. After spending many years at the service of François Peron, Daniel with powers of attorney in hand embarked for New France in 1662 to look after his father’s business.
In 1663, he renounced Calvinism in order to get married in catholic New France . He married Louise Gargotin, fille du roi, 26 February 1664. They settled in L’Ange-Gardien and had six children. Following the death of François, who had disowned him for having abandoned his faith, Daniel took the name Peron to which a second « r » was added by the catholic society. From then on Daniel Suire became Daniel Perron dit Suire. He was 39 when he died 22 February 1678.
Joseph Dugrenier
The Dugrenier dit Perron family came from Rouen , Normandy , and father and sons were all bakers. Pierre Dugrenier, son of Germain and Marie Bucquet, was baptized 26 April 1675 in the church of Saint-Maclou and married Suzanne Huault, daughter of Louis, 2 June 1707 in the same church. The mother died a few months after giving birth to their son and Pierre remarried to Marie Thérèse Grenet of the same parish 9 August 1711. Marie Thérèse became the new mother to baby Pierre and gave birth to eleven children. It is thought that Joseph was born around 1720.
Around 1736, Joseph left his native Normandy under unknown circumstances and settled in New France where he married Marie-Anne Jacques, daughter of Pierre and Marie-Ambroise Chalifour, 5 February 1742 in the first chapel (1737) of Saint-Joseph, Beauce. The couple had eleven children. Joseph was among the first pioneers of New Beauce. He died 20 May 1770 in the same parish, aged about 50 years. At first, the family was known as Dugrenier dit Perron, then the name became Perron. However one of the children, Joseph, kept the Dugrenier name which still exists in the Granby region.
Jacques Desnoyers
Jacques Desnoyers dit Lajeunesse was born around 1656 and is said to be from La Rochelle . A soldier of the “compagnie de Marin”, he married Anne-Marie Goguet (Jean Grou’s widow) 26 October 1693. Marie-Anne was the daughter of Pierre and Louise Garnier. They were married in Pointe-aux-Trembles. They had five children.
The couple lived on the land and in the house left to her by Jean Grou. Marie-Anne died in October 1730, and Jacques in September 1735. We still don’t know why one of Jacques’ descendants took the name Perron in the middle of the 18th century. Among the many descendants of the three ancestors of the Perron families, are pioneers who colonized provinces, territories et states of North America. In North America , close to 26 000 persons are proud bearers of the Perron name.