Recorded as Delete, Delitt, Dillet, Dillitt, and probably others, this is a French surname. It is a diminutive and originates from the Latin word 'Diet' meaning people. Surviving early records, and there are not many surviving as most were destroyed during the Revolution of 1792, suggest that the name was localised to the town of Aboncourt en Vosges. This is unlikely to be correct. There is also an unproven suggestion that the name may derive from the Irish surname '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. Examples of the name recording include Georges Delete, who married Marie Ann Vautrim at Aboncourt, on September 12th 1789, and Victor Delitt, baptised at Aboncourt on July 28th 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. This was dated October 17th 1780, when he 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 sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.