Percival Family History

English:: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Perceval first found as the name of the hero of an epic poem by the 12th-century French poet Crestien de Troyes describing the quest for the holy grail.

The origin of the name is uncertain; it may be associated with the Gaulish personal name Pritorīx or it may be an altered form of the Celtic name Peredur (see Priddy).

It seems to have been altered as the result of folk etymological association with Old French perce(r) ‘to pierce or breach’ + val ‘valley’.

(of Norman origin): habitational name from either of two places called Perceval in Calvados Normandy (France).