Skeat or Skeats is a common English family name. The names Skeat, Skeats, Skeates, Skett, Skitt and Skates are derived from the forename Scet or Schett, which is mentioned in Domesday Book.

History

Skeat was originally a given name derived from the Old Norse skjótr, meaning "swift" or "fleet". Ricardus filius (son of) Schet 1166 is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II in Norfolk. It is mentioned as a surname in the 1201 Pipe Rolls in Shropshire and in the 1275 Hundred Rolls in Norfolk again. Robert Skeet is mentioned in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk for 1327.

Skeat

People surnamed Skeat or Skeats

Bob Skeat, bass guitarist in Wishbone Ash

Ethel Skeat (1865–1939), English paleontologist

Ernest Willington Skeats (1875–1953), geologist

Francis Skeat (1909–2000), English glass painter

Len Skeat, jazz double-bassist

Theodore Cressy Skeat (1907–2003), paleographer

Walter William Skeat (1835–1912), philologist and etymologist

Walter William Skeat (anthropologist) (1866–1953), anthropologist

References

Skeat