Perrault

Perrault is a French surname made from a familiar or pet form of the personal name Perre, an Old French form of Pierre. It therefore began as a byname based on a person's given name. It was not originally an occupational name or a place-name, and the spelling by itself does not identify one family.

Meaning and Linguistic Path

The *Dictionary of American Family Names* derives Perrault from a pet form of Old French Perre, a variant of Pierre, the French equivalent of Peter. In plain English, the surname belongs to the large group of French family names created from familiar forms of baptismal names.

The deeper name history runs through French Pierre and Latin Petrus to Greek Petros. The CNRTL etymology for *pierre* connects Petrus with Greek Petros and the Aramaic name Kephas, “stone” or “rock.” That remote word meaning is often shortened on name sites to “Perrault means rock.” This is liable to mislead: the surname arose from the personal name Pierre or Perre, not from evidence that its first bearers lived among rocks or worked stone.

Calling Perrault a patronymic-type surname is reasonable in the broad sense that it was formed from a male personal name. It should not, however, be translated mechanically as “son of Pierre.” The cited surname dictionaries describe it as a pet or diminutive form, and they do not document a literal French phrase meaning “son of.”

Perrault, Perrot, and Perreault

Perrault, Perrot, Perreault, Perault, Perro, and several other spellings belong to the same wider Pierre-derived name family. They are best treated as possible historical correspondences, not universal substitutes.

There is direct evidence of spelling overlap in particular families. The *Dictionary of American Family Names* history identifies settlers in Quebec as Jacques Perrault/Perrot in 1654 and Nicolas Perrault/Perrot in 1671. A detailed study by Johanne Perreault of the Paul Perot dit La Gorce line found Perot and Perrot in early records, later Perrault, and an eventual shift toward Perreault in one part of the family. That case shows what can happen within a documented line; it does not prove that everyone bearing any of those spellings descends from Paul Perot.

The safest interpretation depends on the complete record:

• Search Perrault, Perreault, Perrot, Perot, and Perault when the same people and locality are otherwise consistent.
• Preserve the spelling in the original document rather than silently normalizing it.
• Use spouses, parents, witnesses, occupations, signatures, and places to decide whether two spellings refer to the same person.
• Do not merge unrelated families merely because two surnames share the Pierre root.

Perry should not be treated as a routine Perrault variant. A particular family may have adopted an English spelling, but that change needs to be demonstrated in records; Perry also has independent surname origins.

Documented French and Canadian Context

The surname was established in France well before modern civil registration. One secure, readily dated example is the author Charles Perrault, born in Paris on 12 January 1628. The Académie française records his election in 1671 and identifies him as the brother of the architect Claude Perrault. This is a useful historical anchor, not a claim that Charles or his family were the earliest Perraults.

French Canadian history is more complex than descent from a single immigrant. The surname history published by FamilySearch from the Dictionary of American Family Names names several distinct arrivals or formations:

• Jacques Perrault/Perrot dit Villedaigre, from Mons in Charente-Maritime, married at Quebec City in 1654.
• Nicolas Perrault/Perrot, from Darcey in Côte-d'Or, married in Quebec in 1671.
• Pierre Perrault married Geneviève Duclos in Quebec around 1686.
• François Perrault, from Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire in Nièvre, married Jeanne-Suzanne Pagé at Quebec City in 1715.
• Louis Leparon dit Perrault, whose inherited surname was Leparon, used Perrault as a dit or secondary name and married at Quebec City in 1751.

These entries demonstrate independent Perrault histories in New France. They also explain why a Canadian record may present Perrault either as a hereditary surname, as one spelling alongside Perrot, or as a dit name attached to a different surname.

François Perrault's career supplies a particularly well-documented example. Roland-J. Auger's biography in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography places his birth about 1694 in the parish of Saint-Jacques at Cosne-sur-Loire, records his 1715 marriage in Quebec, and traces his work as a merchant with stores at Quebec, Trois-Rivières, the Saint-Maurice ironworks, and Saint-Sulpice. He died at Trois-Rivières in 1745. This evidence establishes one family's route from France to Canada; it cannot be applied to every Perrault family.

What the Surname Can—and Cannot—Show

The etymology can identify the name's language and formation: French, from a familiar form of Perre/Pierre. It cannot identify the original Pierre behind a modern family, prove descent from Charles Perrault, or connect all French and Canadian bearers.

Even a documented change from Perrot to Perrault in one parish is evidence about that line only. Conversely, different spelling does not necessarily mean different ancestry when a person's relatives, residence, and signature connect the records. The distinction is important because the historical sources contain both repeated formation from a common personal name and genuine spelling change within individual families.

Related Names

• Perrin is another French surname formed from a familiar form of Pierre.
• Perrine is a French feminine personal name that also became a surname.

They share a personal-name root with Perrault, but shared etymology is not evidence of shared genealogy.

References

• Patrick Hanks, Simon Lenarčič, and Peter McClure, eds., *Dictionary of American Family Names*, “Perrault”, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2022.
• Patrick Hanks, ed., *Dictionary of American Family Names*, “Perrault” surname history, Oxford University Press, 2003; republished by FamilySearch. Includes the named Quebec settlers and the Leparon dit Perrault entry.
• Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, “Pierre: étymologie”, Trésor de la langue française informatisé, CNRS/Université de Lorraine, 2012.
• Roland-J. Auger, “Perrault, François”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1974.
• Johanne Perreault, “Hommage à Paul Perot dit La Gorce et Marie Chrestien”, L'Ancêtre, vol. 48, no. 338, Société de généalogie de Québec, spring 2022, pp. 165–179.
• Académie française, “Charles Perrault”, biographical notice for seat 23.