Evatt

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"Evatt" redirects here. For other uses, see Evatt (disambiguation).

The surname Evatt is of English origins. Modern spelling deviations include Evett and Evitt. Early Old English spellings did not include the double tt in the spelling, using only one t with the different spellings of Evot and Euote.

According to the Book of English Surnames all of the above Evatt surname spellings are diminutives of Eve. Contrary to a commonly held belief, Evatt is not a derivative of the surname Evans as Evan is the English Welsh form of John, dating from about 1500 AD, well after the Evatt/Euote surname was already in wide use in England.

The surname Evatt/Euote diminutive was first seen in England in the year 1295 AD, and recorded in the Barnwell Church. The record concerned a William Walter Euote. ^[1]

The known Evatt Family Tree begins with the William Walter Euote referenced above. He was born about 1266 AD near Ruskington in Lincolnshire County, in Old England.

The Evatt family name can be found in England, the United States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The most populous area for Evatts is in the state of South Carolina in the United States.

Famous Evatts include Dr. Herbert Vere "Doc" Evatt (1894-1965), who became, at the time, Australia's youngest High Court Justice at 36 in 1930. He had previously been a New South Wales MLA (1925-1930) for Balmain in the State Legislature fo the Labor Party (ALP). Evatt resigned from the High Court in 1940, winning a federal parliamentary seat in 1941 for the Barton Electorate with the ALP. As Australia's Minister for External Affairs Evatt was instrumental in the United Nations' (UN) founding, becoming its first President of the General Assembly (1948-49). Labor's loss in 1949 saw Evatt in Opposition, where he became leader after Ben Chifley's 1951 death. He led the campaign for the "No" vote in a referendum to ban the Communist Party of Australia in 1951, but lost the 1954 elections, believing until his death that this was due to the Petrov Affair (Wiki link needed). He precipitated the ALP's disastrous split in 1955, lost the 1955 election and reitred from politics in 1960 to become Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

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