Landry is a surname of French origin. Landry appears in the names of towns in France, Canada and the United States, as well as three canonized saints.
Contents
History
Landry: It was not until the early Middle Ages that surnames were introduced to distinguish between numbers of people bearing the same personal or Christian name. Landry is of patronymic origin, coming from Landericus, belonging to that category of names derived from the first name of the father or ancestor. In this case, the name simply denotes "the son of Landry", a popular personal name during the medieval period, early forms of which included Landri, and the regional variant Landry. Today in France, the name is also found in the forms of Landrin and Landron. The name is in fact, of ultimate Germanic origin, being derived from the old baptismal name "Land-rick", a composite name which signifies, literally, "land/country-powerful".
Different spellings of the same original surname are a common occurrence. Dictionaries of surnames indicate probable spelling variations of Landry to be:
It appears, however, that it is not known for certain when the name was first recorded.
Although Landry is considered French in origin, it is not found throughout France. Rather it seems to have been concentrated around three small villages, south of the town of Loudon, province of Poitou: LaChausee, Martaize and Aulnay. In Quebec, however, the surname is quite commonly spread, along with Ladrie of probably similar origin.
"I am given to understand that the Landry name is well known in the area around Loudun in Poitou, but is rather hard to find elsewhere in France."
Professor Stephen A. White, Genealogist at the Universite De Moncton in New Brunswick. N. Bujold and M. Caillebeau, Les origines francaises des premieres familles acadiennes:le sud Loundais (Poitiers:Imprimeirie L'Union, 1979) p. 32