Collett
A surname that likely means “little Nicholas,” though it was once also linked to an acolyte or church servant.
The #4,404 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,287 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Collett is usually explained as a diminutive of Cole, itself a short form of Nicholas, so the name can be read as “little Cole” or, more fully, “little Nicholas.” Some older writers also connected it with Old French and medieval Latin forms meaning an acolyte or church helper, but that explanation is now treated as secondary or mistaken. The name may also have been influenced by the French feminine name Colette.
History
Bardsley and Lower both favor the Nicholas explanation, while noting older confusion with church-related words such as acolyte. In medieval records, diminutive forms like Collet and Colette were common, and the surname appears in English documents from the later Middle Ages. The spelling Collett later became fixed in England and also traveled to North America.
Origin
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Fun fact
St. Colette was sometimes explained in older sources as a form meaning “little Nicholas,” which helped keep the name’s history tangled between a nickname and a saintly female given name.
From the historical record
“COLLER. An Idler. See Eng. Surn. COLLETT. Has been derived from colet, an acolyte, the fourth of the minor sacer- dotal orders ; but its true meaning is " little Nicholas." Thus the parents of St. Colette, who held St. Nicholas in great veneration, gave their child in baptism the name of " Colette, c'est a dire…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom