Pilot Family History
Pilot Surname Meaning
English: from Middle English Pilat Pilet Pilot (from Latin Pīlatus) used either as personal name or as nickname for a boastful person or for one who played the part of Pilate in the medieval mystery plays where he was portrayed as a proud ranting tyrant.
French: diminutive of Pile ‘mortar trough’ or a topographic name (referring e.g. to a culminating point) or nickname (for a tall thin person) based on Old French pilot ‘post stake’. It is also found in England as a surname of Huguenot origin.
Italian (Friuli): from old Friulian pilot ‘spike bodkin’. Compare Pillot.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
