Petty
A surname from the French word for “small” or “little,” originally likely a nickname for a short person or the younger/smaller of two.
The #1,005 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,851 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Petty is a reduced or Anglicized form of French petit, meaning “little” or “small.” In surname use, it was most likely applied as a nickname, either to someone of slight build or to distinguish a younger or smaller bearer from another person with the same name. The same root appears in English as petty, which later developed a wider sense of “minor” or “of lesser importance.”
History
The surname appears early in English records and is common enough to have been treated by 19th-century surname scholars as a standard example of a nickname-based family name. It is also found in related forms such as Petit, Pettit, and Pettet, which often overlap in records. In the United States today, Petty is established as a fairly widespread surname, with many bearers descending from English or Anglo-French families.
Origin
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Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same French root behind Petty also lies behind the modern English adjective petty, though the surname itself originally just meant “small.”
From the historical record
“a ridge] PETTY, a weak form of Petit, q.v. PETTYFER, v. Petifer. PETWORTH (Eng.) Bel. to Fetworth (Sussex), the Domesday Peteorde- If the Domes- day-Book form had been the earliest • found there would have been little difficulty in concluding that Fetworth was Pseta's orPeata's Estate ; but there seems to be no…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)