Cadet
A French surname meaning “younger son” or “junior,” often used as a nickname for the younger branch of a family.
The #7,240 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,017 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname comes from French cadet, meaning “younger son,” “junior,” or “the younger one.” The word is also found in Occitan sources with the same basic sense, and historically it could be used as a nickname for a younger sibling or junior member of a family. Some older surname writers also connected related forms to Huguenot or French immigrant names.
History
The name is especially associated with French naming practice, where it could identify the younger son in a family or a junior branch of a lineage. It appears in English surname references as a likely French or Huguenot import, and related forms are found in regional French surname lists. In modern usage, Cadet is also widely known as a surname in French-speaking and Caribbean communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older French, cadet did not just mean “a military student”; that later sense grew out of the older meaning “younger son” or “junior.”
From the historical record
“TWIFORD, V. the commoner form Twyford. TWIGG I (Eng.) Scion, Cadet [O.E. twig = TWIGGEJ Dut. twijg, a twig, branch, scion, etc. (=Ger. zweig, branch, scion, etc.]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)