Spratt
A surname most often explained as a nickname from the fish-name sprat, though some older scholarship linked it to the medieval personal name Sprot.
The #7,157 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 66,056 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The most straightforward explanation is that Spratt comes from the word for a sprat, a small fish, used as a nickname and then inherited as a surname. Some 19th-century scholars also suggested a connection with the old personal name Sprot, which appears in Domesday-era records and could lie behind related surnames such as Sprott. The two explanations are not wholly incompatible in old surname scholarship, but the fish-name derivation is the one most often given in later reference works.
History
The surname is established in medieval English records and remained especially familiar in England. Lower explicitly lists it as the fish-name, while Bardsley discusses it among surnames that look like fish names but may sometimes conceal older personal names. Modern surname references commonly treat Spratt as English, with related forms such as Sprott and Spratley occurring in the same broad naming family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Spratt is one of several English surnames that sound like fish names but were debated by early name scholars, because some may hide older personal names rather than literal animal nicknames.
From the historical record
“parish in Yorkshire. SPRATT. The hsh, analogous to Her- ring, &c. SPRECKLEY. The same as Sprat! ey. SPRIGNELL. A corruption of Spigur- nell, which see. SPRING. See Times and Seasons. SPRINGER. A sobriquet relating to the elasticity of the first bearer.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom