Where Does the Petr Surname Come From?

Arms linked to Peter and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

What Petr means

In old registers, Petr often stands in for Peter. The name is usually explained as “From Petrus, "rock"”.

Petr drops the “e” of Peter, a shortening that clerks often made. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists. You may also find the name written Petro, Per and Petros. Petr ranked 61,899 in the 2010 US Census, with 324 people answering to the name. Similar-sounding surnames on Herald Lab: Petri, Pieter and Petter.

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