Mallet Family History

French: nickname from a diminutive of Mal ‘bad’. Alternatively from a derivative of the related Old French word maleit ‘accursed’ (from Latin maledictus the opposite of benedictus ‘blessed’) applied as a nickname for an unlucky person. Compare Malet.

French: variant of Malet 2 an Old French pet form of the personal name Malo. French: from a diminutive of Old French male ‘trunk, chest, coffer’. This may have been a metonymic occupational name for a maker of chests or by extension for a carrier.

Compare Malet French: variant of Maillet ‘mallet’ used as a metonymic occupational name for a smith or as a nickname for a fearsome warrior (see English Mallett).

English (Jersey and London; also Norfolk): variant of Mallett mostly of Old French and Norman origin (see above).