A subject near and dear to my heart. How did these nicknames come about and what purpose did they serve?
Picture yourself in la Nouvelle France (not Québec or Canada!) A ship has just arrived in port and four men named Jean Savard disembarked. How do you convey to others with one you are talking about?!
So the dit names were based on occupation, military company, area of origin, physical features or family line. The latter being the most important. Some were outright nicknames.
I have a German ancestor with the dit name 'Leblond'. The blonde. OH that guy!
I have one with the dit name 'Brisetout' Breaks everything!
I have many with professions Lagrange, Lemesurier, Charron Laframboise, Dumoulin.
Then those with the place of origin such as 'de-Languedoc' 'de Champagne'. With these you would use 'de' not 'dit'.
The officers in my tree are 'dit-Larose', 'dit
The dit name became a useful tool in determining whose line you descended from. Half brothers of the Jarret family François and André are a good example to give. François bought his new seigneurie in Verchère, hence the dit name became Jarret-de-Verchères. So his descendants uses that moniker. Antoine names his seigneurie after an area he grew up near in France 'Beauregard' i.e. beautiful view. André dit Beauregard was born. Now the two lines of each brother were distinct.
Where it gets tricky is that there can be variances within the same family. I suppose it was more important for the boys to maintain the dit name. My ancestor, Marie just used Beauregard. But any child can use any combination.
Now my pet peeve with 'dit' vs 'dite'. My head explodes when I see this! LOL!
No you do not use -'dite' when it's a woman!
Dit means 'say'. Say is a verb. Verbs simply cannot be modified by the masculine nor feminine.
There I feel better now!