Joan of Arc Had Many Names
The traditional Anglicization of Joan's father's last name, d'Arc (also written as Darc or Tarc), may lead one to believe that Joan was from a place called Arc. As the daughter of a farmer and his fervently Catholic wife, Jehanne—or Jehanette, as she was known—grew up in the village of Domrémy in northeastern France.
Joan gave only the name “Jehanne la Pucelle” (“Joan the Maid”) during her trial before an ecclesiastical court in 1431 and one of the interesting facts about Joan of Arc is that she was unaware of her last name. Later, she revealed that her mother's name was Isabelle Romée and that her father's name was Jacques d'Arc, noting that in her birthplace, females frequently adopted their mothers' last names. Romée merely meant a person who had undertaken a pilgrimage to Rome or another religiously significant location in medieval France, where family names were neither set nor commonly used; other accounts claim that Joan's mother went by Isabelle de Vouthon.
She was known as Jehanette in her Domrémy, northern France, homeland. Jehanne d'Arc, Jehanne Tarc, Jehanne Romée, and maybe Jehanne de Vouthon are also mentioned in the documents. So, she had many names depending on the stage and the place where she lives.
Even though Joan couldn't write, she could sign her name, always going by Jehanne. That is John in a feminine tense. Joan still goes by the name Jehanne in France.
