Hatchett
A surname most likely developed from the name Hatch, itself often treated as a shortened or altered form of an older personal name.
The #6,005 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 53,920 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest older source treats Hatchett as related to Hatch rather than as a direct word for the tool. In that tradition, it is explained as a later surname form built from a personal name or nickname base, with some early writers linking similar forms to Old English name elements and others simply treating it as a diminutive or variant of Hatch. The underlying literal sense is therefore not fully secure, and the name should be read as an inherited family name rather than a transparent occupational term.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers record Hatchett as an English family name and compare it with forms such as Hatch, Hackett, and related variants. The name appears in historical records in several spellings, including Hatchard and Hatchett, showing the usual medieval instability of surname spelling. In modern use it remains uncommon but well established in English-speaking countries, especially the United States and Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname books often grouped Hatchett with a whole cluster of similar-looking names, because medieval scribes spelled the same family name in several different ways.
From the historical record
“Hatch, which see, and also er. HATCHETT. Voltaire mentions _a grand vizier of Turkey called Alep Baltagi, so named from balta which signifies a hatchet— ih^t being the Turkish designa- tion of the .slaves who cut wood for the princes of Ottoman blood. " Ce vizir avait ete baltagi dans sa jeunesse, et en avait…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom