Petit
A French surname meaning “the little one,” originally a nickname for a small person or the younger of two.
The #5,692 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 50,697 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Petit comes from French petit, meaning “small” or “little.” In surname use, it began as a nickname for someone of small stature or, more broadly, the “junior” or younger member of a family. The same idea appears in the old Norman French form Le Petit, which older surname dictionaries treat as a very common byname.
History
The surname is well established in medieval and later French records, and English surname writers note it as a Norman import. It has also appeared in anglophone settings as an immigrant surname, especially where French or Norman families settled. Related English surnames such as Little and Petty reflect the same nickname tradition.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
French surnames built from nicknames often kept the original article, so Le Petit can be read literally as “the little one.”
From the historical record
“PETIT (Fr.) Little [see Petit(t, Petty, in Diet.] PHILIPPE (Fr.),the French form of Philip, q.v. ill Diet. PICOT (Fr.) see Picket in Diet: PINTO (Portug.) Chick, Chickling [Portug. pinto, pintao]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)