This surname is derived from an official title, 'the knight,' a man-at-arms, a military follower; Anglo-Saxon cniht, a servant.

John le Cnitht, Suffolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Gilbert le Knyt, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Roger le Knith, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Ellis le Knyght, Wiltshire, ibid.

Other forms in the same registers are Knicht, Knyght, Knict, Kneyt, Knigt, Kniht, Knyth, and Knit.

Roger le Knyt, Close Rolls, 3 Edward I.

Johannes Knyght, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Willelmus Kneyte, 1379: ibid.

Thomas Knycht, 1379: ibid.

Willelmus Knygth, 1379: ibid.

1599. Married — Thomas Burves and Tone Knight: St. Antholin (London).

A curious Puritan Christian name is seen in the following:

1638. Baptised — John, s. of Know-God Knight: St. James, Clerkenwell.

I fear his enemies would pronounce it No-Good.

Robert dictus Knycht, burgess of Abirbrothoc, had a charter of a piece of land in Aberbrothoc in 1331 (RAA., II, p. 10). In 1435 John Knycht, canon of Brechin, was rector of Funewyn (Finhaven) (REB., I, p. 196; II, 49,104). He is probably the John Knycht who appears on an inquest on the lands of Tulloch in 1438 (RAA., II, 83). Katrine Nycht, wife of John Nicholsoun, burgess of Dumfries, is in record in 1544 (Anderson). Alexander Knyt was on an inquest made at Prestwick in 1572 (Prestwick, p. 73). By some erroneously considered a translation of Gaelic Mac Neachtain.

(English) Knight, Man-at-Arms; earlier, Youth, Servant [Middle English kniht, knyht, knyght, &c., knight, soldier; Old English cniht, boy, servant,retainer: cp. Mod. Ger.

knecht, servant]

If of Irish origin this is Mac an Ridire (ridire — knight). MacKnight if Scottish is Mac Neachtain.

Knight is a common English name. SIF 100

(English, Welsh) A military servant of the king; one who held land in exchange for military service or rendered to king or lord; descendant of Cniht (youth or servant).

1. Applied, not to a person who actually possessed knighthood, but by way of sobriquet. See Lord, &c. See also English Surn. i. 134. 2. Perhaps a more probable derivation is immediately from the Anglo-Saxon cniht, a servant, youth, military follower. The Anglo-Saxon cniht-had implies, not the modern idea of knighthood, but the period between childhood and manhood. See Bosworth. The H.R. forms are Le Knigt, Kniht, Le Knit, Le Knyt.

A term originally applied to a young man after he was admitted to the privilege of bearing arms, by a certain ceremony of great importance called knighting, which was generally conferred by the king.

Between 1180-98, twenty-two persons named Miles or Knight occur in Normandy (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). The name probably came thence, and in 13th cent. was in England Miles and Knight (Rotuli Hundredorum). English families may have been included.

From the Swedish, Kniucht; from the Dutch, Knegt; from the German, Knecht (a servant); a personal name.

Knight: by no means invariably means one who has received knighthood. A knight is a knecht, a servant. The surname Midnight, perhaps, means the mead-cniht, the man who poured out the mead.

Knight. —Well distributed over England south of a line drawn from the Humber to the Dee. In the northern part of England it is singularly rare. Sussex stands foremost for the number of its Knights, and after it come, in their order, Hants, Leicestershire and Rutland, and Gloucestershire. In Norfolk and Suffolk we have the form of Knights.