French (Benoît): from the personal name Benoit, French form of Benedict.
FOREBEARS A Benoît, also called La Ruine, is recorded in Quebec city in 1666; another from the Nivernais is recorded in Montreal in 1658, with the secondary surnames Nivernois and Livernois, and one from Paris is recorded in Champlain, Quebec, in 1665, with the secondary surname Laforest. A bearer of the name from the Poitou region of France is recorded in Château-Richter in 1665; another, from Saintonge, is documented in Montreal in 1670 with the secondary surname Lajeunesse; and a third, from the Angoumois region, was recorded in Montreal in 1729 with the secondary surname Laguerre. The secondary surname Abel, from a father's forename, is recorded in 1694 in Île-d'Orléans. The LA lines seem to have descended from various Acadian refugees of the 18th century.
