Corbet
One-Name Study

Topics

• About the Corbet One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Historical occurrences
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Links
• Contact Details

About the Corbet One-Name Study

Welcome to the Corbett One Name Study. Records for Corbets and its name variations have been collected by the study for over 28 years and while most of the records collected are for the United Kingdom although a few Corbet family researchers from around the world have contributed local records. The main purpose of the study has been concentrated on gathering together Corbet families which have become disconnected over the centuries.

Variants

CARBERT / CARBET / CARBETT / CARBOTE / CARBOTT / CARBOTTE / CARBUT / CARBUTT / CARBUTTE / COBBETT (for which there was a COBBETT One Name Study) / CORBAT / CORBATT / CORBEL / CORBEN / CORBER / CORBETH / CORBETS / CORBETTS / CORRBETT / CORBETTA / CORBEETE / CORBETTE / CORBIT / CORBITE / CORBITT / CORBOT / CORBBOT / CORBOTT / CORBUT / CORBUTT / CORBYT / CORBYTT / CORBYTE / KARBUT / KERBOT / KORBET / KORBETT / CORBERT

Origin of the surname

Corbit is the Old French for 'raven' and the New English Dictionary says it was also 'probably a nickname for one with dark hair or complexion'. The dictionary also says 'corbeau' is a blackish green colour from the French for raven and 'corbie' a raven or crow. (A corbie messenger in Scotland is one who returns too late or not at all, and corbiesteps are crow steps.) (The Dictionary of Names)

CORBER (a Devon family) became CORBET when they moved to London - details of this family also recorded.

Also see The Surnames of Ireland by Edward Maclisaght.

Historical occurrences

One could start by trying to connect to the Norman Corbet family who settled in Shropshire but most researchers are more realistic and are happy if they can trace their family back to the 17th century. Even this can be problematical but the Corbet One Name Study will try to help you take your family back a little further if you have traced your family from the present day back to at least the beginning of the 20th century.

Distribution of the name

Corbett is the most common way of spelling the names - and many can be found in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. Some Corbett families can be found quite early in Scotland, Ireland and Norfolk but the further back one goes the greater the difficulty there is in tracing ones forebears.

Data

The records searched for Corbets are too numerous to list here. Apart from the more easily accessed records - Census, Births, Deaths and Marriages which are probably alreadt available to you the study group has also searched for Corbets in literally hundreds of published records and books. This is a seemingly a never ending task which Corbet family researchers can help by donating parish register extractions and contributions are always and these can be searched to help individual researchers.

Links

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/corbettonenamestudy/index.html

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Gordon Corbett
E-mail:

This page last updated 13 January 2012.

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.