(French) form of Benedict, q.v. in Dict.

(French) Descendant of Benoit (blessed).

In eighteenth-century Louisiana various inhabitants, ranging in socio-economic status from lowly indentured workers, subsistence farmers, and troops to important military officers, bore the surname Benoit or Benoist.* However, by far the greater part of the Benoit families in the state today trace ancestry from Acadian forebears who arrived in the colony some 200 years ago, settling mainly in the Teche and Lafourche areas.

The only Benoit immigrant of high social standing who may have left descendants in Louisiana was Jean-Baptiste Benoist de Ste. Claire, a captain in the French Army and a member of the Military Order of St. Louis. At one time commandant at one of the Illinois posts, the captain lived in New Orleans during the 1750s, but by 1783 had settled in the Attakapas at St. Martinville.

His son, Jean-Baptiste-Charles, a lieutenant in the Militia of the Mississippi, married into the wealthy and politically powerful DeClouet family (m. 1793 Louise-Marie DeClouet) to begin a small but little-known branch of Benoits in the Teche area.

Some members of that line apparently were antebellum planters along Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette Parish and along the Teche in St. Martin Parish.

The more common Benoits of Acadian origin began to arrive in Louisiana probably in the late 1760s.

About that time two Benoit brothers from Acadia, Jean-Baptiste (m. 1751 Anne Trahan) and Charles-Olivier (m. 1756 Suzanne Boudreau), as well as one of their nephews, Étienne, had arrived.

The two brothers settled in the border area between the Attakapas and Opelousas districts, whereas the nephew remained for at least a decade in the Acadian Coast of the Mississippi River before moving on to the Attakapas in the late 1780s.

Jean-Baptiste apparently left no male heirs, but both Charles-Olivier (chiefly through his son Jean-Charles who m.

1785 Nanette Savoy) and nephew Étienne (m. 1771 Madeleine Breaux) became the principal progenitors of the Benoit clan in southwestern Louisiana.

For much of the nineteenth century most of Étienne's descendants lived as small farmers in the Carencro area north of Lafayette; those of Charles-Olivier and son Jean-Charles resided near Grand Coteau and along the upper Teche near Arnaudville and Breaux Bridge. However, even before the Civil War some had migrated westward into present Acadia Parish near Rayne and southward into Vermilion Parish near Abbeville.

Late in the eighteenth century a Sébastien Benoit, born in France of exiled Acadian parents (Augustin Benoit and Françoise Thériot), somehow had reached Louisiana, probably after 1785. In Ascension Parish he married 1789 Jeanne Forestier, and 1800 Hypolite Lebleu at Opelousas.

By 1809 he and his second wife had migrated far into the Calcasieu area, being among the pioneers to settle near the site of Lake Charles.

Most of his descendants appear to have remained in the southwestern parishes, some as stockmen, others as small farmers, settling along the Mermentau River near Lake Arthur, in the prairies near Jennings and Welsh, and on the cheniers within the coastal marshes of Cameron Parish.

Descendants of both Sébastien and the earlier Benoit Acadians of the Teche country were probably involved in the spread of the surname into southeastern Texas since the 1900s.

Other Benoit families arrived in Louisiana with the Acadian refugees from France in 1785. Among them were two brothers, Grégoire (m. 1770 Marie Carret) and Daniel (m. 1768 Henriette Legendre), both sons of Claude Benoit and Élizabeth Thériot, who had been exiled to England and then to France.

Grégoire settled along Bayou Lafourche, where he became the main progenitor of the present-day Benoit families of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

Daniel obtained land along the west bank of the Mississippi near Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish,17 but little is known of his descendants.

Although not recorded in the 1785 passenger lists, another Acadian refugee from France, Jean-François Benoit of St. Malo, was in Louisiana at least by 1789, when he married Marie-Modeste Pinelle of LeHavre; two years later the two had settled along the Lafourche, where they contributed to the growth of Benoit families in that area

The name Bennett comes from the first name Benedict. This name originates from the Latin word ‘benedictus’ which means ‘blessed’-a popular Christian name in late Roman times. It was also the name of the fifth-century founder of the Benedictine Order. Since that time, no fewer than fifteen popes have taken the name Benedict.

With the decay of Latin, the popular name Benedict was adapted into many languages. In Italian it became Benedetto, in French Benoit. The French form came to England with the Norman Conquest, then gradually evolved to Bennett. In the process many variations arose, some of which remain in common use today. Bennetts, for instance, means ‘dependant of Bennett’; Benson means ‘son of Bennett’, if it is not the alternative surname derived from the place in Oxfordshire. The surname Benn also derives from the old source (and, so far as we can tell, not from Benjamin). The variation Bennet is usually found in the north of the country.

The records of Furness Abbey, which was run by the Benedictine Order, indicate a great number of baptisms with the names of Bennet and Benson. Indeed, these names (the two most popular forms) are found to be particularly prevalent in areas where the Benedictine monks flourished. Other variations found in Benedictine baptismal records include the names Bennison, Benns, Bence, Bense, Bennie and Benny.

The earliest reference to a Bennett is in the 1193 records for Oseney Abbey. Here the name appears as Beneit, which is a variation of the Old French form. The earliest Bensons appear in the 1326 Rolls of Wakefield Manor, where John Benneson and Adam Bensome are listed. A rare variation of the name appears in Shakespeare. In Much Ado About Nothing one of the characters is called Benedick.

Bennett remained for many years a popular first name, but it is now rare. Likewise, the first name Ben is nowadays usually short for Benjamin, rather than for Benedict. Thus Bennett curiously remains a popular surname which derives from an original first name now almost unused.

Bennettitales is an alternative name for an extinct species of palm-like plants which constituted a major portion of the earth’s vegetation during the middle Mezozoic period some 150 million years ago.

Bennett’s Fracture is a fracture of the base of the thumb, named in honour of Edward Hallaron Bennett, the eminent Irish physician who was an expert on breaks and dislocations.

The geographical term ‘ben’ comes from the Gaelic word for peak (beann). Thus parts of Britain-especially Scotland and Ireland-abound in mountains incorporating the word: Ben Nevis, for instance, and Ben More.

There are no United Kingdom towns incorporating the name Bennett. Australia and the United States have Bennett mountains while New Zealand has a Cape Bennett.

With about 117,000 namesakes, Bennett is the 46th most popular surname in England and Wales. (The name is not common enough throughout Scotland to be counted separately.) Bennett is notably popular in and around Birmingham where an estimated one in about 420 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Bristol, Sheffield and Liverpool are other Bennett strongholds. Around the world Bennetts are most common in Sydney (one in 719 families), Canberra (one in 767) and Auckland (one in 805). The United States has more Bennetts than the entire population of Southampton-an estimated total of just under 255,000 makes this their 69th most popular surname.