Perrette

← Back to The Colonial Americas

Girl · Greek, through Latin and Old French

Perrette

Say it: peh-RET

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Feminine diminutive of Pierre, from Greek petros 'stone'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

A common everyday name for women in medieval Paris, later used by La Fontaine for his daydreaming milkmaid.

Its wave through time

No birth counts are recorded for this name in the records loaded here: it has been given to fewer than five babies a year, or not at all, since records began.

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600

Used by

French

The family of the name

Other spellings: Pérette

Famous bearers

  • Perrette, the milkmaid of La Fontaine's fable

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The Paris tax rolls of the 1290s
  • Well-known works of literature

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.