Not ironic,it's a common name here.(I'm in a French-speaking part of Canada.)
Our former Lt. Governor is, in fact, a poet and illustrator, careers he's returned to, now that his stint as Lt.G. is over. (Not that I know him, you understand, but I live in a sparcely populated province and he's quite well known, locally.)
So perhaps his parents had an intuition.
Don't know if he is nick-named, it's not so prevalent in French.