Addendum: The Beaudoin Family (Bowdoin, Baudoin, Baudin, Bowden, Bodin) - Part 1 Origin of Name and Early Settlement The name Beaudoin and variations is actually of Teutonic origin. It is the French equivalent of Baldwin and means "Bold in Battle:. According to legend, first mention of the name traces as far back as Charlemagne. Charlemagne compelled his widowed sister, mother of the Carolingian here of song and lay, Roland, to marry Ganelon, the Prince of Mayence, who was then created the Comte of Guenes. They had issue: Baudouin. Banelon betrayed the French Army and Charlemagne in the battle against the Moors and only the sacrifice of Roland who held the pass was executed by the French monarch for his infamy. Charlemagne ordered Baudouin to be killed, but the child was spirited away by his mother to Brittany where the noble family of de Baudouin grew up and lived. In the 13th Century, a Baudouin was made Duc de Brabant and to this day, the name was associated with that Duchy which even the present heirs of Belgium use as a family name. One of the first three Crusader Kings to succeed Godfrey Bouillon to the throne of Jerusalem was Baudouine. There was a titled Baudouin Family in Tours and another in Bordeaux, France in the 13th Century. A Beaudouin was in the company of William the Conqueror and was given a welsh Barony which exists to this present day, and was probably the ancestor of the Bowden, Bodin, Boden family of England.