AbeBooks.com. Thousands of booksellers - millions of books.

There are approximately 211 people named Fitz in the UK. That makes it the 14,645th most common surname overall. Out of every million people in the UK, approximately 3 are named Fitz.

Region of origin

Europe

Country of origin

Unknown

Language of origin

Unknown

Religion of origin

Unknown

Classification

Unknown
Location or Geographical Feature

Related and similar surnames

Fittz
Fites
Fitts
Fitt
Fite
Fitte
Fight
Fights
Ffitz
Fits
Fit
Ffittz
Fittzs
Fiits
Fitiz
Fitoz
Fidt
Ffit
Fitez
Fittes
Fitgh
Fiitts
Fitsz
Ffitt
Fittez
Fitus
Fitis
Fitas

The Fitz surname in historical dictionaries

Patronymica Britannica (1860)

FITZ. Occurs at the present day as a surname without any addition. This is prohablv local, from the parish of Fitz in Shropshire ; or it may he the Xorman-Fr., Le Fitz, " the Son "—like Cousin, Frere, Brother, &c. Fiz. H.R. |°FITZ. A Norman-French prefix, signifying son, being a corruption of the 'LaimfiUns. Many of the names which occur in Domesday Book v;\i\ijilhis and the father's name in the genitive case, become Fitz in later records. Like AP among the Welsh, and MAC among the Scotch, the Fitz prefixed to the father's name was the only surname in use in many noble families, thus: 1. Bardolf; 2. AkarisFitz-Bardolf; 3. HerveyFitzAkaris ; 4. Henry Fitz-Hervey ; 5. Randolph Fitz-Henry, and so on, down to the time of Edw" III. This succession is found in the family known as FitzHugh, which then became their permanent surname. In general, howe-\-er, this patronymical method was disused at an earlier period. Camden informs us that " King Edward the First, disliking the iteration of Fitz, commanded the Lord John Fitz-Robert, an ancient baron (whose ancestours had continued their surnames by their fathers' Christian names) to leave that manner, and be called John of Claveriug, which was the capital seat of his Barony. And in this time many that had followed this course of naming by Fitz, took them one settled name and retained it." Remains, p. 185. The origin of the word FiTZ, which has so much puzzled some Antiquaries, is this : in coutracting the word fiUus, our old scribes drew a stroke across the '1,' to denote the omission of the following ' i,' and thus assimilated it in form to the letter 't.' The character ' z ' is the usual contraction of ' us.' Thus the word looked like "fz," and came to be so pronounced. FITZ-CLARENCE. This siu-name was given to the natural children of the late Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV. FITZ-ELLTS. The knightly family so named, who flourished at'Waterpyrie near Oxford, sprang from Sir William Alis mentioned in Domesd. The forms are FitzElys, Fitz-Elias, Fitz-Ellis, &c. See Ellis.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Your comments on the Fitz surname

comments powered by Disqus