Pendergast
An Irish surname usually understood as a reduced or altered form of Prendergast, though some English-local explanations also appear in older sources.
The #9,803 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,503 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most historical authorities treat Pendergast as a variant of Prendergast, an established Anglo-Norman and Irish surname. In Irish sources it appears in Gaelicized spellings, while some English writers also tried to connect forms like Pendergast and Pendergrass with local English place-names or with phonetic reshaping from Prendergast. Because the evidence points in more than one direction, the safest summary is that Pendergast is chiefly a variant form of Prendergast, with later spelling simplification and dialectal change.
History
The name is well known in Ireland and in Irish diaspora communities, and variant spellings such as Pendergast, Pendergrass, and Pindergast are recorded in 19th-century surname dictionaries. In American records it has often been grouped with Prendergast and its reduced forms, especially in urban surname lists. Some older writers proposed local English origins for certain spellings, but those explanations are less secure than the Prendergast connection.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century onomastic writer noted that the same family-name cluster could drift through several spellings, including Pendergast, Pendergrass, and Prendergast, within the same general population.
From the historical record
“William le Pendere. — Mun. Gildh. Land. PENDERGAST PENDERGEST PENDERGRASS PENDERGRAST PENDLE. Bel. to Pendle(Hill) (Lanes), A.D. 1294 PennetAlle, 14th cent. Penhil, Penhul [the second element is O.E. hyll, a hill ; the hill being over 1800 feet high, the first element is rather the Cymric pen/s. head, height, than…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)