When I was about 11/12 years old I was living in Kaula Lumpur Malaysia. It was 1970 and it was a very interesting year in my life. I learned a great deal about being a Canadian. There is nothing like leaving your home country to discover that you do have a home country!
While I was there I met a very interesting French Woman. She had been living in Malaysia for a number of years and had many stories to tell. I am sorry that I don’t remember her name. I do remember that she was older and had this wonderful accent and I loved listening to her talk. She called me Alouette. She thought that my name was simply wrong and someone had mixed up two names.
One time we were visiting and she asked me if I new anything about my name, its meaning in English and its history. My maiden name was Lynette Marie LeTissier. I had been named after one of my father’s old girlfriends as he really liked the name Lynette.
She told me that Lynette should really have been spelled Linnet which is also called a Lark. She called me Alouette because it is French for Lark. Her interpretation of my last name was less about her fancy and more about the name itself.
Le – the simple translation is The.
Tissier – simply translated means Weaver.
My family name is The Weaver. So, according to my friend the French Woman, my family in the past had been weavers to somebody important, most likely the king and they were granted the Le in front of their name. They were also gifted with an Island – Guernsey, a small rock off of the coast of France. (Please remember that this is her story of my name and its history, not the real history). I have since learned that she took many liberties with history and the past! But how I loved her story! It fit perfectly into that young girls” perceptions of life as it should be.
Some parts are true – half the names in the Guernsey phone book are LeTissier. To own land there one must be born there as half the land is held in trust for native born and the other half is open market.
I still carry that story with me today. My Email address is based on her fancies and as is the title of this blog. LeTissier Designs is the name of my Knitting Pattern business because it was a promise I made to myself as a teenager – when I was a famous designer (at that point I was more thinking of fashion design) I wanted to be know by my last name – I was very proud of my history – both real and imaginary.
I love the fact that my family history is tied to fiber and the creation of fabric and I like to think that I am carrying on family tradition.
Be Well. Live and Knit Happy
Lynette (Alouette) 🙂
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