Prickett
An English surname that likely began as a nickname for a young deer, especially a buck in its second year.
The #8,249 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,879 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually explained from Middle English pricket or priket, a word for a young deer, especially a buck in its second year. That term goes back to the verb to prick, referring to the animal’s small, emerging antlers. Some 19th-century writers also linked the name to French Priquet or treated it as a later form related to Prichard/Pritchard, but the deer-nickname explanation is the best-supported traditional one.
History
English surname writers used Prickett as an example of a nickname taken from wildlife terminology, and some families also adopted the related heraldic image of a young deer. The name appears in historical records in Britain and later in North America, where spellings such as Prichett, Prickitt, and Prickard were sometimes confused or altered. Because spelling was fluid, the surname may have multiple local histories in detail, even if the main origin is the same.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older dictionaries note that a family crest could show “a pricket tripping,” tying the surname directly to the deer image.
From the historical record
“[Wei. ap, son] PRICKETT (Eng.) a nickname (and sign- name) from the second-year Buck so called [M.E. pri{c)ket, pryket; f. MJE.prik- ken, O.E. prician, to prick] And joyed oft to chace the trembling pricket. — Spenser, Shepheards Calender (Dec.) (Fr.) the French Priquet : (a) a dim. f. the Teut. base *prii, to prick.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)