Avant
A surname that may come from the Hampshire place-name Havant or from the French/Old French word for “forward.”
The #6,277 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 56,723 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most nineteenth-century surname writers treat Avant as either a reduced form of the place-name Havant in Hampshire or as a name taken from the old French war-cry avant, meaning “forward” or “ahead.” The place-name explanation is straightforward and fits English surname patterns well. The war-cry explanation is also plausible, but it is more speculative and may reflect a nickname or occupational association with a messenger or scout.
History
The name is recorded in English sources, especially in Yorkshire, and later writers connect it with local-name formation in England. Some older scholarship also links it with French-influenced medieval bynames and heraldic or military language such as avant-courier. In modern use, Avant is relatively uncommon but established in the United States and elsewhere as a hereditary surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same French root appears in English words like “avanti” in musical directions and in the older phrase “avant-courier,” meaning a messenger or advance scout.
From the historical record
“Yorkshire. AVANT. Probably from Havant, a town in Hampshire; or it may be from the old war-cry, Avant ! " Forward ! " AVENEL. The sire des Biars, who w.as at the battle of Hastings (Taylor's Eoman de Rou., pp. 219, 227), bore the name of Avenals, without prefix. William Avennel probably the " sire " referred to…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom