Brette History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• England
• Germany

Etymology of Brette

The ancestral home of the Brette family is in the German state of Bavaria. The name Brette 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 Brette 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 Brette 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 Brette family was increased when it expanded and acquired distant estates in other areas of Germany.

Early Origins of the Brette family

Early History of the Brette family

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

Brette Spelling Variations

Many cultural groups lived in the German states in medieval times. Each had its own dialect and traditions, and unique variations of popular names. Low German, which is similar to contemporary Dutch, was spoken in Westphalia. German names are characterized by additions such as regional suffixes and phrases that tell something about the origin or background of its original bearer. Further contributing to the variation in German names was the fact that there were no spelling rules in medieval times: scribes recorded names according to their sound. The recorded spelling variations of Brette include Bret, Brett, Brette, Bretsch, Brettschneider, Bretsnyder, Brettschnyder and many more.

Early Notables of the Brette family

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...
Another 30 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Brette Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Brette Ranking

In France, the name Brette is the 7,218^th most popular surname with an estimated 1,000 - 1,500 people with that name. 1

Migration of the Brette family

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 Brette or a variant listed above: Augustus Bretschneider, who came to Philadelphia in 1852.