Ovett Family History

Probably from the Middle English personal name Uviet spelled Ouyet. This could represent Old English Ūf(e)gēat or Ufegēat; Ufegeat is recorded in Old English documents but the length of the initial vowel is uncertain. With a long first vowel, the name might be a compound of Old English ūf ‘owl’ + a linking vowel -e- + the tribal name Gēat with shortening of ū in the trisyllable to give Middle English *Uviet.

With a short initial vowel, the first element could be ufe- as in Old English ufemest ‘uppermost highest’. An alternative possibility is that Uviet represents either of two other Old English names Wulfgēat (male) or Wulfgȳð (female) with Wulf- reduced to Uf-; see Woollett.

In early Modern English, surnames -iet and -iat were often simplified to -et and -at. Final -ot in the medieval forms of the surname is unexpected and presumably arose from a re-interpretation of -et as the Old French Middle English hypocoristic suffix -et for which -ot was commonly substituted.

The historical spelling and pronunciation of Ovett was probably /uvɛt/ later /ʌvɛt/, similar to that in love (from Old English lufu) and Lovett. The current pronunciation /əʊvɛt/ is a new one modeled on words like rover and cove.

The surname has had long histories in Brighton (Sussex) and in the New Forest (Hants) but also a presence in the Midlands from at least the 16th century.