Tittletross

This very unusual surname when recorded as Tittelote, Tittello, Tettelot, and Tetelet, is French in origin, as Tittletross there is considerable doubt. The French surname is either a nickname deriving from the original word "tete" meaning head, plus a diminutive "lot" to mean "Little head". This was an endearment nickname, given to the youngest or smallest member of the family, and the opposite meaning of "big head". On the other hand the surname could be locational, and refer to somebody who lived at a place on the crest of a small hill, there are various places in France called Tetelot or similar. The spelling as Littletross seems to be either a double barrelled name which has been conjoined i.e. Little-Ross, or it is a dialectal conversion and development of either Tetelote, or a similar name. The problem is that there are few if any similar names, or certainly few that the records indicate have been transposed. Many holders of French surnames changed the spelling over the following centuries into (near) English forms, is this one of them? Examples of the surname recording include Pierre Tettelet and his wife Susanne, at the French Huguenot church, Threadneedle Street, on December 15th 1685, and Jean Tittelot, a witness at the French church, known as St Jean Spitalfields, on March 13th 1715.