Plant

Etymology

In one common explanation, Plant comes from Old French plant, ultimately from Latin planta, meaning a shoot, cutting, or young plant; by extension, it could describe someone living by a plantation, grove, or planted place. Some older English surname writers also treated it as a shortened or altered form of Plantagenet in a few local families. The name may therefore have more than one origin depending on the branch of the family.

History

The surname is recorded in England and later appears in various spellings and local usages. Nineteenth-century surname writers noted that some bearers at Kettering were popularly said to descend from or preserve the royal name Plantagenet, though this was presented as a corruption rather than a standard derivation. In French, related forms such as Duplant were also noted, showing the wider continental background of the name.

Origin

Regions

Variant spellings

Fun fact

Older surname books mention the name in connection with plantings and groves, but also with a rather grand local tradition linking some families to Plantagenet.

Related surnames