American Family Name Origins:
Rabbitt
Frequency: (466)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Scottish: from a pet form of Rabb.
2. English: from the Norman personal name Radbode, Rabbode, composed of the Germanic elements rād ‘counsel’, ‘advice’ + bodo, boto ‘messenger’, ‘lord’.
3. Irish: mistranslation of Gaelic Ó Coinín, which is actually a variant of Ó Conáin or Ó Cuineáin (see Cunneen), as if it were from coinín ‘rabbit’, although in fact it is from a diminutive of cano ‘hound’, ‘wolf’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
