Pete
A short surname most likely from the pet form of Peter, or from a related word meaning godparent in older Dutch and German.
The #7,228 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 66,843 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pete is most commonly understood as a reduced form of the personal name Peter, with the sense of "Peter's descendant" or "son of Peter" in broad surname use. Historical surname writers also linked it to Middle Dutch pete and German Path(e), words for a godparent, ultimately from Latin pater in a spiritual sense. Because the name is short and old, some examples may reflect more than one pathway or overlap with other pet-derived surnames such as Peet and Pett.
History
The surname appears in medieval English records in forms such as Pete and related spellings. Later writers treated it as part of a wider group of Peter-based diminutives and variants, alongside Peet, Pett, Pate, and Pitt. It is not among the most common English surnames, but it has persisted in Britain and, through migration, in countries such as the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname books linked Pete not just to Peter, but also to an old word for a godparent—showing how a tiny surname can have more than one possible backstory.
From the historical record
“3 a dim. of Peter, q.v. [cp. Dut. Piet'\ 4 f. the M. Dut. pete (mod. peet), a God- parent [like Ger. pat{h)e,' f. Lat. pater (spiritualis), with change to the weak masc. decl.]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Pete
- Megan Thee Stallion (b. 1995)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.