English
The surname Pratlett of English origin. It was a nickname for a clever trickster, from Old English 'proett', trick, craft, cunning, astute, which is found in use as a byname in the eleventh century. Middle English 'pratt(e)' is not recorded as a vocabulary word until the fifteenth century. The word nickname is derived from "an eke-name" or added name, and since surnames originated as added names for help in identification, all surnames are, in a sense, nicknames. The name may also be derived from the French-Latin ( Old French 'prat'; French 'pre'; Latin 'prat-um' - a meadow ), 'dweller at a meadow'. The earliest example is Lefwinus Prat c1080 an Old English byname which the document explians '(id est) Astutus, quod ab inimicis saepe captus caute evaserit'. Pratt is the family name of the Marquesses and Earls Camden. They are descended from John Pratt ( d. 1573 ) of Devonshire. The first Earl, Sir Charles Pratts' ( 1714-94 ) son was created Marquess in 1786. The name was brought to America by English immigrants. One of the first fore fathers to bring this name to America is that of a Phineas Pratt who left Great Britain for America in 1622 and settled in Plymouth Colony. A Rear-Admiral of the American armada bore this name, William Veazie Pratt. This name is the four-hundredth and thirty-seventh most common surname in America.