Little surname meaning
An English descriptive nickname for a small, young, or junior person, sometimes used to distinguish a father and son.
The short story
Little is an English descriptive surname for a person who was small, young, or junior in a family or community. Such nicknames could distinguish a younger man from an older namesake and later become hereditary even when the description no longer fit. Lyttle, Lytle, Littell, and Little show regional and historical spelling forms. The surname can also have separate Scottish or immigrant histories, so spelling alone does not identify one household. Nickname is the high-confidence catalog type: the practical description is clear, while the original bearer might have been short, young, or simply the junior person among relatives.
Also seen as: Lyttle, Littell, Lytle, Little
- Ancestry, Dictionary of American Family Names entry 'Little' (descriptive nickname and family distinction)
- Wikipedia 'Little (surname)' (English surname origin and variants)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)