Lovat

This surname, of English or Scottish origin, and found chiefly in Staffordshire, can be either a nickname from the Anglo-Norman French "lo(u)vet", meaning "wolfcub" or "young wolf", or it can be a locational name from Lovat near Beauly, Inverness, deriving from the Gaelic "lobh", meaning "rot", plus "ait", place. Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those 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 early 12th Century (see below), and further recordings include one Thomas Lovet (1273) in the Subsidy Rolls of Northamptonshire, and Willelmus Louott (1379) in the Poll Tax Records of Yorkshire. Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Lovat, Lovitt, Lovett, and Loveitt. Recordings from Staffordshire Church Registers include: the christening of Elianor, daughter of John Lovett, on August 29th 1517, at Trentham, and the marriage of Agnes Lovatt and Richard Lovatt on November 18th 1582, also at Trentham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Luvet, which was dated circa 1125, in the "Chartulary of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.