Bellemare (; ) is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

, that means "somebody from Bellemare", name of several hamlets in Normandy (± 20). It is also one of the most common family names in

Mauricie Mauricie () is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,860.05 km² (13,845.64 sq mi) and a popu ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It is a compound of French ''belle'' "nice, pretty" and ''mare'' "mere, lake, pond", Norman word of Old Norse origin ''marr'' "sea", finally borrowed from Norman by French around 1600 as "pond, puddle".

History of the Canadian Bellemares

The Bellemares share a common ancestor with the Gélinas: Étienne Gellineau, a , or maker of serge fabric, from La Salenderie, close to Saintes in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Saintonge Saintonge may refer to: *County of Saintonge, a historical province of France on the Atlantic coast *Saintonge (region), a region of France corresponding to the historical province Places *Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, a commune in the Charente-Mari ...

area (now known as

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime () is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. As of 2019, it had a population of 651,358 with an area of 6,864 square kil ...

). Gellineau married France Huguette Robert in Saint-Michel's catholic Church 27 June 1645. He settled the

area in 1658 and worked for three years as an indentured servant for

Pierre Boucher Pierre Boucher de Boucherville (born Pierre Boucher; 1 August 162219 April 1717) was a French settler, soldier, officer, naturalist, official, governor, and ennobled aristocrat in Nouvelle-France or New France (in what is now Canada). Early life P ...

, Governor of

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

. Gellineau had three sons: Étienne, Jean-Baptiste and Pierre. Jean-Baptiste eventually took the name Bellemare.Leslie Choquette, Frenchmen into Peasants: Modernity and Tradition in the Peopling of French Canada, 1997

Traditions

Rituals preserved by the Bellemares include the paternal blessing (french: la benédiction paternelle). Until the mid-1980s and in some cases even to this day, it has been customary for the children and grandchildren of a Bellemare family unit to ask their

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

to bless them on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

. The practice is not exclusive to the Bellemare Family.

People

Notable people with the name include: * Adélard Bellemare (1871–1933), Canadian politician *

Alex Bellemare Alex Bellemare is a Canadian skier from Saint-Boniface, Quebec. He has competed in numerous skiing events, such as the Winter X Games. In Aspen in 2015 he took Bronze at the Winter X Games XIX in Slopestyle Skiing. Alex also represented Can ...

(born 1993), Canadian skier * Annie Bellemare (born 1980), Canadian figure skater *

Daniel Bellemare Daniel Bellemare (born 1952) is a Canadian prosecutor. After retiring from a long career in the Canadian legal system, Bellemare was named as a prosecutor for the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon, until 2012. Canadian legal career Bell ...

(born 1952), Canadian prosecutor * Daniel Bellemare (figure skater) (born 1980), Canadian figure skater *

Diane Bellemare Diane Bellemare (born October 13, 1949) is a Canadian economist and parliamentarian from Quebec, who was appointed to the Senate of Canada on September 6, 2012. From September 2003 to April 2007, she held executive jobs with the ''Conseil du pat ...

(born 1949), Canadian economist and politician * Dionel Bellemare (1880–1950), Canadian politician *

Eugène Bellemare Eugène Bellemare (April 6, 1932 — July 6, 2018) was a Canadian politician. Bellemare was a former Member of Parliament of the Liberal Party of Canada in the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Ottawa—Orléans between 2 ...

(born 1932), Canadian politician *

Gilles Bellemare (composer) Gilles Bellemare (born 29 March 1952, Shawinigan) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator. He has been commissioned to write music for more than 30 professional ensembles internationally, many of which have been recorded or perfor ...

(born 1952), Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator * Gilles Bellemare (politician) (1932–1980), member of the National Assembly of Quebec *

Jonathan Bellemare Jonathan Bellemare (born June 10, 1982) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player. He played the centre position for the ASG Angers in France and HC Martigny of the National League B in Switzerland. Prior to his professional career in ...

(born 1982), Canadian ice hockey player *

Marc Bellemare Marc Bellemare (born 3 May 1956) is a lawyer and politician from Canada. Background He was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, studied Law at the Université de Montréal and was admitted to the Bar of Quebec in 1979. Provincial politics Bellema ...

(born 1956), Canadian lawyer and politician *

Maurice Bellemare Maurice Bellemare, (8 June 1912 – 15 June 1989) was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was known as ''Le Vieux Lion de la Politique Québécoise'' (The Old Lion of Quebec Politics) because of his colourful style and his many years of publi ...

(1912–1989), Canadian politician *

Michel Bellemare Michel Bellemare (born July 10, 1967) is a Canadian politician and lawyer. Bellemare was a member of the City Council in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from 1994 to 2010. He served as the acting as mayor of Ottawa, while mayor Larry O'Brien faced cha ...

(born 1967), Canadian politician *

Pierre Bellemare Pierre Bellemare (21 October 1929 – 26 May 2018) was a French writer, novelist, radio personality, television presenter, TV producer, director, and actor. Television * ''La Tête et les Jambes'' * '' La Caméra invisible'' * '' J'ai un Secre ...

(1929-2018), French writer, novelist, radio personality, television presenter, TV producer, and director *

Pierre-Édouard Bellemare Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (born 6 March 1985) is a French professional ice hockey player for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has also played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche and Tamp ...

(born 1985), French ice hockey player * Rose-Eliandre Bellemare (born 1989), French artistic gymnast *

Rykko Bellemare Rykko Bellemare (born 1991) is a Native Canadian film actor, best known for his lead role as Shawnouk in ''Before the Streets (Avant les rues)''. He won the Prix Iris for Revelation of the Year, its award for debut performances, at the 19th Quebe ...

, Canadian film actor *

Sylvain Bellemare Sylvain Bellemare (born February 20, 1968) is a Canadian sound editor and sound designer, best known internationally as the supervising sound editor of '' Arrival'' (2016), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Sound (shared with Claude La H ...

(born 1968), Canadian sound editor and sound designer

Footnotes

{{surname Bellemare family Surnames