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16-468: Joseph Favre, dit Montferrand, was born in the St. Lawrence district of Montreal in 1802. The family men were known for their strength and powerful build. Joe was 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall with blue eyes and fair hair. Although he was mild in manner and appearance, he could more than hold his own in a street fight . He successfully challenged several famed boxers during his youth. He came to fame as

32-406: A name to the mascot. When originally named Big Joe Mufferaw , Redblacks owner Jeff Hunt stated, "We heard that fans loved the look of our mascot and hundreds said he had to be Big Joe Mufferaw. We like that name too because it reminds us of our city's past and fits so well into the branding of our football team." The name was a reference to French Canadian folk hero , Big Joe Mufferaw , who

48-416: A personal attribute (Leblond, Leblanc, Leroux), place of origin (St-Onge, Coderre, LeBreton), or profession (Chartier, Meunier, Vanier). For example, an immigrant to New France from Paris might receive the dit name Parisien , and a person who worked as a blacksmith might receive the dit name Lefebvre . Sometimes, the name could be ironic. A large person could be "Tiny" or Petit. The custom originated in

64-450: A result of a challenge issued at a boxing match in the Champ de Mars, Montreal . Two English-speaking boxers had just fought for the championship. The organizers then asked if there was anyone in the crowd who wished to challenge the champion of Canada. The 16-year-old Montferrand stepped into the ring and, with one punch, felled the champion. News of the surprising event spread quickly. At

80-607: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This surname -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Big Joe (mascot) Big Joe ( French : Grand Jos ) is the mascot of the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The mascot was introduced in February 2014, prior to the 2014 CFL season . The Redblacks launched a contest to provide

96-470: Is based on real-life Joseph Montferrand (French: Jos Montferrand ), who is often credited as a lumberjack from the Ottawa Valley . However, the name caused controversy and divided opinions, as some considered it offensive to Montferrand's surname. Criticisms of the name arose, as some fans claimed the "Mufferaw" took away from the "Frenchness" of Montferrand, and alienated French-Canadians. Due to

112-602: The Bytown area. After 1840, he mainly worked the log drives as foreman and retired in 1857. In his later years, he had back and joint pain. He died in Montreal in 1864, aged 61, and was interred at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery . Montferrand's legendary nickname, Big Joe Mufferaw (also sometimes spelled Muffero, Muffera, Muffraw), is believed to be a result of English speakers mispronouncing "Montferrand" phonetically. He

128-668: The 19th century, and in a few cases into the 20th century. The dit name poses challenges for genealogists confronted with different surnames in different documents, particularly if they are not familiar with the custom. Dit and the feminine form dite translate as "called" and are the past participle of the French word dire , "to say". A name such as Adolphe Guillet dit Tourangeau can translate as "Adolphe Guillet, called Tourangeau", where both "Guillet" and "Tourangeau" are used as surnames, sometimes together and sometimes individually in different situations. The dit name carried

144-665: The Ottawa Valley and her 1983 book Look! The Land Is Growing Giants . Bernie Bedore of Arnprior also wrote several books that recount Joe's adventures. Stompin' Tom Connors made him the hero of a 1970 song . A statue of Joe Mufferaw was erected outside the Mattawa Museum in Mattawa, Ontario , during the spring of 2005. Carved by local carving artist Peter Cianafrani, it was his last statue before he died later that spring. A plaque commemorating his name sits at

160-841: The age of 21, he joined the Hudson's Bay Company as a voyageur . In 1827, he began work as a logger on the Rivière du Nord in Lower Canada and then moved to the upper Ottawa River . The loggers felled trees over the winter, drove the logs down the river, and eventually arrived at Quebec City . Montferrand would also briefly have a stint in the United States , working for the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire . Montferrand spent

176-648: The base of the statue. Montferrand was also the inspiration for the Big Joe mascot of the Ottawa Redblacks CFL team. Montferrand was named a National Historic Person by the federal government in 2023. Dit name The dit name ( French : nom-dit [nɔ̃ di] ) was a common French-Canadian custom by which families often adopted an alternate surname . They were also used in France, Italy, and Scotland. The practice lasted until

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192-412: The military, where those with the same name adopted noms de guerre to distinguish themselves. Children often adopted the dit name, sometimes dropping the original family name. Sometimes some of the children chose to take only the family name and others only the dit name. This Manitoba -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Quebec -related article

208-517: The remainder of his working years in the lumber trade in the Outaouais . There was ongoing animosity between Anglophones and Francophones and frequent fights between English-, Irish -, and French-Canadian loggers. Montferrand's prowess with his fists and boots was legendary in avenging the wrongs to which he and his compatriots were subjected. Montferrand defended French-Canadian workers against gangs of Irish immigrants known as " Shiners " in

224-513: The same legal weight as the original family name with regard to land transfers and the naming of children. Dit names developed for a variety of reasons, such as distinguishing one family from another nearby family with the same surname, or allowing an adopted child to retain both their birth and adopted family names. In some cases, both the original name and the dit name were retained, resulting in full-blown double-barrelled names such as Miville-Deschênes. A family's dit name often derived from

240-428: Was already a legitimate folk hero in his own time, but his reputation grew into the mythical hero when exaggerated tales were told about him. Like Paul Bunyan , he became the subject of many similar tall tales . Mufferaw is sometimes enlisted as a defender of oppressed French-Canadian loggers in the days that their bosses were English-Canadians and their rivals at work were Irish-Canadian criminals. In one story, Big Joe

256-664: Was in a Montreal bar, and a British army major named Jones was freely insulting French-Canadians. After Big Joe beat the major, he bellowed, "Any more insults for the Canadians?" Some Mufferaw tales take place in the Northeastern United States . The French-Canadian writer Benjamin Sulte told this man's story in a 1884 book. He is also the subject of a chapter in Joan Finnigan 's 1981 book Giants of

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