Show ContentsBechet History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The ancient Anglo-Saxon culture once found in Britain is the soil from which the many generations of the Bechet family have grown. The name Bechet was given to a member of the family who was a person with a prominent nose. The Old English word beke refers to the beak of a bird. More rarely, Bechet may be a local type surname, referring to someone who lived beside a stream.

The surname in this case is derived from the Northern Old English word bekke, which means stream and is derived from the Old Norse word bekkr. Also, Bechet may be a local surname referring to settlements called Beckett in Berkshire and Devon.

The Berkshire settlement takes its name from the Old English words beo, which means bee, and cot, which means cottage or shelter. The name of the Devon settlement has the Old English personal name Bicca, which is probably derived from becca, which means pickaxe or mattock, as its first element.

Early Origins of the Bechet family

The surname Bechet was first found in Norfolk and Cheshire, where they held a family seat from ancient times, long before the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Early History of the Bechet family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bechet research. Another 109 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1170, 1653, 1684, 1719, 1738 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Bechet History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bechet Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Bechet family name include Becket, Beckett, Beckete, Beckette and others.

Early Notables of the Bechet family

Distinguished members of the family include Isaac Beckett (1653-1719), an English mezzotint engraver from Kent; one of the first practitioners of the art in England. William Becket (1684-1738), the English surgeon...
Another 29 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bechet Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bechet Ranking

In France, the name Bechet is the 1,935th most popular surname with an estimated 3,203 people with that name. 1

Ireland Migration of the Bechet family to Ireland

Some of the Bechet family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 63 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Bechet migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Bechet surname or a spelling variation of the name include :

Bechet Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • Genevieve Bechet, who landed in Louisiana in 1718 2
  • Jean Bechet, aged 4, who landed in Louisiana in 1718 2
  • Marie Bechet, who arrived in Louisiana in 1718 2
  • Francois Bechet, who arrived in Louisiana in 1719 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Bechet (post 1700) +

  • Sidney Joseph Bechet (1897-1959), American jazz musician
  • Louis Samuel Albert Désiré Béchet de Léocour, French Divisional General during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1789 to 1815 3


  1. http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
  2. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  3. Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789-1815. (Retrieved 2015, February 11) Louis Béchet. Retrieved from http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/c_frenchgenerals.html


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