Dillet is a French surname, but of Old German origins pre 9th century origins. It derives from the Latin 'Diet' meaning 'people' although the German version was 'Dillo', a dialectal transposition. Quite when the name 'moved' to France is unclear, French records are at best erratic, and many early registers were lost in the chaos and confusion which followed the 1793 revolution. The French spelling form as 'Dillet ' is a diminutive meaning 'Little Dillo' or more likely 'the son of Dillo' and in this spelling it is recorded almost exclusively in the Department of Meurthe et Moselle, from the mid 18th century. Surviving early records suggest that it is even more localised than that, being almost entirely found in the town of Aboncourt en Vosges, as shown in the recordings below. Of course this cannot be right, the name must be earlier, and must have been found elsewhere. There is an unproven suggestion that the name may derive from the Irish 'Dillon', a surname associated with Eleanor of Aquataine' who, it is said, had a bodyguard raised from the clan Dillon. Certainly the Dillon name was well recorded in France, where they served the French kings over several centuries, so it is possible. Examples of the name recording include Georges Delete, who married Marie Ann Vautrim at Aboncourt, on September 12th 1789, and Victor Delete, the son of Dominique and Marie Claire Delete, christened at Aboncourt on July 28th 1845. One who got away was Marie Anne Delete, who married Joseph Soyer at Fecourt, on January 15th 1845. The Coat of Arms granted in Louvain has the blazon of a silver field, a red fesse charged with two horned rams heads in silver. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas Dillet, which was dated October 17th 1780, married Theresa Marchal at Aboncourt, during the reign of King Louis XV1 of France, 1774 - 1793. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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