Burnette
A surname usually understood as a French-influenced form of Burnett, itself long associated with a reddish-brown color term or a place-name origin.
The #2,172 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,469 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Burnette is best treated as a spelling and pronunciation variant of Burnett. Burnett itself is commonly explained as coming either from a Middle English/French color term for a dark brown or brownish-red shade, or from a place-name source in Scotland. The final -e in Burnette is an English spelling expansion, while the double-t suggests a later stabilized family spelling rather than a different root.
History
Burnett is an established surname in Scotland and England, and Burnette became a familiar American spelling especially in the United States. In practice, Burnette often developed as a variant spelling within the same family lines as Burnett rather than as a wholly separate name. The name has also been carried by several notable Americans in the arts and entertainment fields.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The added final -e in Burnette is one of those small spelling changes that can mark a branch of a family without changing the underlying surname history much.
From the historical record
“A mantle hung her faste by Upon a benche weak and small, A burnette cote hung there withail, Furred with no minevere, But with a furre rough of hair. It was the same with our 'Burrels' (' Roger liurell,' J., ' Robert Burcll,' R.), whom I have already had occa-”
— English Surnames: their sources and significations