Bret History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
France
Germany

The ancestral home of the Bret family is in the German state of Bavaria. The name Bret is an occupational hereditary surname, a type of surname that was taken from a word describing or common to the profession of the original bearer. It is a name for a carpenter or a person who worked making shelves and other wooden objects. The name Bret was originally derived from the Old Germanic word Brett, which means carpenter. It was given to a person who ran a sawmill or a lumber merchant. By the Middle Ages, the Bret family had been elevated to the ranks of the nobility and had become extremely involved in the local social, economic and political affairs of Bavaria. It acquired a prestigious reputation for its contribution to the development of the district. The social status and prestige of the Bret family was increased when it expanded and acquired distant estates in other areas of Germany.

Early Origins of the Bret family

The surname Bret was first found in Bavaria, where the name could be considered to have made an early contribution to the feudal society which became the backbone of early development of Europe. There is record of a Sydel Bretsnyder in 1372 in Liegnitz and a Peter Bretsnyder in Breslau in 1397.

Jakob Bretschneider is listed as living in Dippoldiswalde in 1499 in a document called "Die Matrikel des Hochstifts Merseburg" which chronicles Germanic surnames. The name became prominent in local affairs and branched into many houses which played important roles in the savage tribal and national conflicts, each group seeking power and status in an ever-changing territorial profile. Bret or Brett are short forms of the name Brettschneider, a name meaning a person running a sawmill or a lumber merchant.

Early History of the Bret family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bret research. Another 71 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1776, 1844, 1848 and 1880 are included under the topic Early Bret History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bret Spelling Variations

In the medieval era, many different cultural groups lived in the German states. There are thus many regional variations of German surnames from that era. Westphalians spoke Low German, which is similar to modern Dutch. Many German names carry suffixes that identify where they came from. Others have phrases attached that identify something about the original bearer. Other variations in German names resulted from the fact that medieval scribes worked without the aid of any spelling rules. The spelling variations of the name Bret include Bret, Brett, Brette, Bretsch, Brettschneider, Bretsnyder, Brettschnyder and many more.

Early Notables of the Bret family

Prominent among members of the name Bret in this period include

Friedrich Wilhelm Bretschneider, a lieutenant field-marshal in the Austrian army and at one time the commandant of the Italian city Milano, who was granted his Austrian baronial title in 1844...
Karl Gottlieb Bretschneider (1776-1848), was a pastor and theologian, and general superintendent at the court of the duchy of Saxon-Gotha...

Bret Ranking

In France, the name Bret is the 834^th most popular surname with an estimated 6,145 people with that name. 1

Bret migration to the United States +

Thousands of German settlers came to North America between the mid-17th and mid-20th centuries. The hardships of the long voyage were balanced by the opportunity to escape poverty and religious persecution. The descendents of these settlers still populate the states of Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California. Many also live in Ontario and the prairie provinces of Canada. An inquiry into the early roots of North American families has revealed a number of immigrants bearing the name Bret or a variant listed above:

Bret Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Alfonso. Bret, who landed in America in 1890 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Bret (post 1700) +

Anthony Bret (b. 1972), American television actor, and comic
Ernst Bret, American stand-up comedian
Iwan Bret (b. 1982), American voice actor and an illustrator
Cardin Le Bret (1558-1655), French jurist
David Bret (b. 1954), French-born British author of showbiz biographies
Patrice Bret (b. 1971), French ski mountaineer
Barry Bret Helton (b. 1965), former American college and NFL football player for the San Francisco 49ers (1988–1990) and the Los Angeles Rams (1991)
Frank Bret Thorn, American Republican politician, Member of New York State Assembly from Erie County 9th District, 1908-12, 1914-15 3
Francis Bret Harte (1836-1902), American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. In 1987 he appeared on a $5 U.S. Postage stamp, as part of the "Great Americans" Series of issues
Louis Bret Hart (1869-1939), American Republican politician, Erie County Surrogate, 1905-39; Delegate to New York convention to ratify 21st amendment, 1933 4

Citations +

http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
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)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, August 18) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 21) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html