Recorded in many spellings including Parrott, Parrot, Parrett, Perot, Perott, Peret, Perett, Perret, Perrett,Perritt and others, thhis is an English surname. It has at least two possible origins. The first is a diminutive of the personal name Peter, from the Greek "petros", meaning a rock. Secondly it may be a locational name from North and South Perrott, villages in the county of Somerset, which take their name from the river Parret on which they stand. Locational surnames were usually acquired by former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname dates back to the late 11th Century (see below), making it one of the earliest of all such names, and other early recordings include Ralph Perot in the "Liber Feodorum" of Essex in 1235, and William Poret in the Subsidy Tax Rolls of Yorkshire in 1301. Recordings from church registers include: the christening of William, son of William Parrat, on July 22nd 1582, at St. Gabriel Fenchurch, and the christening of William Perrett on August 13th 1676, at St. Margaret's, Westminster. Catherine Perritt, aged 28, a famine emigrant from Ireland, sailed from Liverpool aboard the ship"Constitution", bound for New York in May 1847. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Peret, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Suffolk, during the reign of King William 1st, known as "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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