I have a boyhood friend named LeDuc, I have seen DiRocco,
DiCicco as surnames etc., but I have not seen “Ne” used like this in front of a name.
What does it mean?
Ne Smith (two words) means “born Smith” and would be used by a married woman to denote her maiden name. It is a social convention and would not be part of her legal name.
Nesmith/Naismith/Nessmith etc. are variants. Doubt if any of them have anything to do with “né”, which in the case of a woman is “née” anyway.
To sharpen the question some, I was wondering why the Smith was capitalized in NeSmith, making the Ne look like those pieces of names like Le, Lo, Di, Del as used in LeDuc,
LoCassale, DiCicco, DelToro, DeLaHoya.
For example, I have never seen anyone write their name CartWright, MandelBaum, ClinTon.
I would accept that it is some sort of affectation, but why would people whose name is Naismith feel more free to change than the JoNeses?
Is is a patronymic thing like FitzSimmons?