Family name origins & meanings
- French : from a pet form of Waldhari, a personal name of Germanic origin formed with wald ‘rule’, ‘power’ + hari, heri ‘army’.
- Bearers of the name who are of Acadian origin are descended from a François Gauterot, who arrived in 1636, from a village near Loudun, in the Loire region of France. A Gaudreau or Gotreau removed from Port-Royal, Acadia, to Quebec city in 1665; and another, from the Isle de Ré, to Île d’Orléans by 1671.