Overett Family History

Perhaps topographic for someone who lived ‘above or beyond the head’ (of something topographical) from Middle English over ‘above, beyond, across’ + Middle English hede ‘head’ in senses such as the starting point of a valley, stream, field, village, or town, and so on. Lack of medieval evidence for such a surname makes this explanation extremely uncertain.

Alternatively, Over(h)ed and Overett may be post-medieval alterations of either Everard (and its variants Evered and Everett) or Overall and its variants (Overell, Overill, Overhill). These three names occur in many of the same parish records of north Essex, and any one of them may have influenced the pronunciation of either of the others.

However, among the earlier attestations, one cannot rule out some instances of editorial mistranscriptions of E- for O- and vice versa.