Petitt History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
France

From the historical and enchanting region of France emerged a multitude of noble families, including the distinguished Petitt family. Originally, the French people were known only by a single name. The process by which hereditary surnames were adopted in France is extremely interesting. Surnames evolved during the Middle Ages when people began to assume an extra name to avoid confusion and to further identify themselves. Often they adopted names that were derived from nicknames. Nickname surnames were derived from an eke-name, or added name. They usually reflected the physical characteristics or attributes of the first person that used the name. The name Petitt is a nickname type of surname for a person of small stature, having derived from the Old French word "petit," meaning, "small" or "little". 1

Early Origins of the Petitt family

The surname Petitt was first found in Burgundy (French: Bourgogne), an administrative and historical region of east-central France where this distinguished family held a family seat at Bressey, where Antoine Petit was a knight of arms in the year 1353. They were also seated at Lavaux. They were strongly associated with the region of Champagne on the northern border of Bourgogne in eastern France. The first record in Bourgogne is at the seigneurie of Villiers-Sur-Suize where they held a family seat several centuries before the 15th century. In the 15th century Guyot Petit was Lord of the manor of Chaumont and a Lieutenant in the government of Nogent. This main stem of the family eventually emerged as the Barons Mathault.

It should be mentioned at this point that due to the Norman Conquest, some of the family emigrated to England, but not all.The source Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae lists "Ralph, William, Bernard, Herbert Parvus or le Petit, Normandy 1180-95" 1 which means that the name concurrently developed in England and Normandy at the same time.

Early History of the Petitt family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Petitt research. Another 97 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1360, 1411, 1550, 1598, 1617, 1665, 1674, 1677, 1685, 1687, 1688, 1720 and 1750 are included under the topic Early Petitt History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Petitt Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Pettit, Petit, Petite, Petites, Pettitt, Petitt, Pessit, Du Pettit, Du Petitt, Du Petit, Le Petitt, Le Pettit and many more.

Early Notables of the Petitt family

Notable amongst the family at this time was Jean Petit (Jehan Petit, John Parvus) (c. 1360-1411), a French theologian and professor in the University of Paris, is known for his public defense of a political killing as tyrannicide; Pierre Petit (1598-1677), French mathematician; and Pierre Petit (1617-1687)...
Another 46 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Petitt Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Petitt Ranking

In the United States, the name Petitt is the 13,437^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 2

Migration of the Petitt family

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Henry Petit who settled in Louisiana in 1719; Claude Petit settled in Louisiana in 1758; Jean Petit settled there in 1756; Richard Pettit settled in Virginia in 1636.

Contemporary Notables of the name Petitt (post 1700) +

Samuel Petitt Oyler (1819-1898), American Republican politician, Delegate to Republican National Convention from Indiana, 1860; Member of Indiana State Senate, 1865-67; Circuit Judge in Indiana, 1869-70 3

Citations +

The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States Of America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1975. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0636-X)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 26) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html