Carencro (/ˈkærənkroʊ/; historically French: Saint-Pierre[2]) is a city in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States.

[3] The name of the city is derived from the Cajun French word for buzzard; the spot where the community was settled was one where large flocks of American black vultures roosted in the bald cypress trees.

Many senior Carencro natives attest that the town's name originates from before the American Civil War.

According to this local legend, Native Americans told Vermilionville settlers that in old times a large number of "carrion crows" (vultures, called carencro in French) had settled around the Vermilion River between Lafayette and Opelousas, Louisiana to feast on a fish die-off.

There is a related theory, consistent with the spelling, that the place is named for the carencro tête rouge, a red-headed buzzard referred to by European explorers as early as 1699, and described in 1774 by Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz.

In a letter written on April 23, 1802, Martin Duralde, a former commandant of the Opelousas post, related the legend as it had come down from an Attakapas Indian.

Duralde wrote: "Many years before the discovery of the elephant in the bayou called Carancro [sic] an Attakapas savage had informed a man who is at present in my service in the capacity of cow-herd that the ancestors of his nation transmitted (the story) to their descendants that a beast of enormous size had perished either in this bayou or in one of the two water courses a short distance from it without their being able to indicate the true place, the antiquity of the event having without doubt made them forget it."

The Indians termed the birds carecros; and from the spot where the mastodon died, the river takes the name of Bayou Carencro.

[5] First called St. Pierre, in the late 19th century, the town was renamed Carencro, after the "carrion crow" (vulture) legend.

Although Carencro's current town center lies well west of the Vermilion River, this legend has permanence within the community.

[4] Few European people settled in the Carencro area (around Lafayette) until the coming of the Acadian refugees in the 18th century.

At that time, Jean and Marin Mouton, Charles Peck, Louis Pierre Arceneaux and others began to establish vacheries in the vicinity.

Alejandro O'Reilly decreed that "a grant of 42 arpents [35 acres] in front by 42 in depth could be issued only to those who owned 100 head of tame cattle, some sheep and horses, and two slaves to oversee them."

In 1769, Juan Kelly and Eduardo Nugent toured the area for the government and reported to O'Reilly that "the inhabitants maintain everything imaginable in the way of livestock, such as cows, horses and sheep."

Other early settlers in the Carencro area were Charles Peck, Traveille Bernard, Rosamond Breaux, Ovignar Arceneaux, and the Babineaux family.

An 1803 census of the Carencro area listed family names including Arceneaux, Babineaux, Benoit, Bernard, Breaux, Carmouche, Caruthers, Comeaux, Cormier, Guilbeaux, Hébert, Holway, LeBlanc, Melançon, Mire, Mouton, Pierre, Prejean, Roger, St. Julien, Savoie, and Thibodeaux.

About the turn of the century, Father J.B. Laforet sold three lots to Mother St. Patrick of the Sisters of Mount Carmel.

After the 1950s, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament taught at Carencro Catholic School, located at the west end of Church Street.

On September 6, the newspaper gave this account: "The little village of St. Pierre, at Carencro, born only a short time ago, tends to stretch itself in an astonishing fashion with numbers of buildings where all kinds of trades and professions are prospering there.

In 1891, historian William Henry Perrin suggested that "there is no prettier site for a town (than Carencro) nor one with more solid advantages than comprised in this place.

"[4] Among leading merchants in the 1890s were the Brown Brothers, Jacob Mitchell, D. Daret, A.G. Guilbeau, G. Schmuler, C. Micou, and J.C. Martin.

St. Peter's Catholic Church has an ornate cypress-carved entrance, altar and narthex, as well as intricate pew end caps.

Carencro notables such as former postmaster William J. Broussard and former lumberyard owner Oliver Richard are buried in this cemetery.

These eschew the ground-level graves of Lafayette (as well as points west and north) for mausoleums because of the high water table.

The City Hall and Fire Station complex, designed by local architect Lynn Guidry, is a modern counterpoint to the traditional Catholic church.

[7] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.1 square miles (16 km2), all land.