From a note about my late friend Steve Isard:
his family name before was Issersky or Isserski, altered on immigration [to Isard]
But the name Isard was not just picked out of a hat; isard is the name (in several languages) of an actual creature, an alpine goat, fleet of foot:
The Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) is a goat-antelope that lives in the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, France and Andorra, and the Apennine Mountains of central Italy (from Wikipedia) — named isard in Catalan, Occitan, and French
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