Who is the parish of Thibodaux Louisiana named after?

Answer 1

Henry Schuyler Thibodeaux a governor of Louisiana, founded and gave his name to Thibodeauxville, the town that eventually became Thibodaux, Louisiana. (The suffix -ville was dropped, yielding Thibodeaux, and eventually the e was also dropped, which is the current spelling. Even so, in South Louisiana today you will find people whose surname is spelled both Thibodeaux and Thibodaux. By the way, both Thibodaux and Thibodeaux are pronounced in the French fashion, "Tib-oh-dough"

"The parish of Thibodaux, Louisiana" is another matter. Louisiana is the only state in the United states that has parishes (sometimes called civil parishes) instead of counties. The parish in which Thibodaux finds itself is Lafourche Parish, which is one of sixty-four parishes in Louisiana. In French, "La fourche" means "the pitchfork", so called because Bayou Lafourche runs down the middle of the parish (which is long and narrow) and on a map Bayou Lafourche looks more or less like a pitchfork.

And also in French, la fourche (the pitchfork) is not to be confused with la fourchette (the little fork, the kind you eat with). As far as is known, there is no parish or Bayou in Louisiana named Lafourchette, after common table forks. On the other hand. it is just barely conceivable that the young ladies' Basketball team at Lafourche High School might be named "Les Fourchettes."