Bennett surname meaning

Bennett comes from the medieval personal name Benedict. English forms such as Beneit and Benoit helped turn the Latin Benedictus—“blessed”—into the hereditary surname Bennett. As with many medieval personal-name surnames, the family name identifies descent from or association with an ancestor known by that given name.

Bennet and Benett are familiar spelling variants. The deeper Latin blessing is the name’s etymology, not a claim that a Bennett family held a religious office or possessed a particular character. Type parent's name is the closest catalog category because the surname grew from a personal name rather than a trade or landscape. Norman French influence helps explain why several spellings survived.