The House of Names says EVITT is Scottish and was first found in PERTHSHIRE possibly before the Norman Conquest.
It derives from the Picts so named because they used to tatoo themselves creating 'pictures' on their skin.
They were said to be terrifying in battle because their bodies were 'painted' blue with tatoos and they used to fight naked.
Related surnames are LEVITT, L'EVITT.
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I think you will find in other sources the name Evitt is regarded as being English (my ancestor came from Ireland!) There does not appear to be any obvious originating area for the name and a number of sources regard the name as being one of very few matronomic names (from the mother),child of Eve. Some sources give a theory that people with this name may have had an ancestor who played the part of Eve in villge pagaents around the time surnames were starting to be used and therefore got labelled with it. Would explain why there is no clear geographical centre for name distribution. Look at distribution on nationaltrustnames.org.uk and publicprofiler.org
ReplyDeleteCheers, Eddie