His family name had once been Duncan, until they came from Scotland to Brittany. Danican was then their family name. Then, after their appointment to the court of King Louis XIII in the 17th century, they adopted the name Philidor as a tribute to an Italian court musician called Filidori. Young Philidor was trained in music from an early age, and learnt chess from musicians in intervals between musical numbers. He turned out to be equally good at both activities, though initially the music came first.