BRITTO Family History

This interesting and ancient surname, of Old French origin, derives from the Old French "Bret", nominative of "Breton", a Breton, from the Latin "Britto", corresponding to the Old Celtic "Britto", and was originally given as an ethnic name to someone from Brittany. The Bretons were early Celtic-speakers, and inhabitants of South West England, known as Britons, who in the 6th Century were largely dispossessed by Anglo-Saxon invaders and driven as refugees to North West France. Five centuries later, some of the Bretons re-entered England as part of William the Conqueror's invading army in 1066.